According to a survey from the Adaptive Business Leaders (ABL) Organization, an executive networking group for healthcare leaders, execs in the industry are split on the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Of the 249 California-based senior healthcare executives surveyed, 38 percent responded that the ACA had already provided at least some opportunity for growth; while 45 percent had found it to be neutral, and 17 percent found it to be negative or disastrous.

 “If you’re running a healthcare business, what you think the impact of the Affordable Care Act has been – or will be – is largely a factor of which particular sector you’re in,” Mimi Grant, President of the ABL, said in a statement. “As our responses clearly show, not everyone in healthcare is embracing the ‘uncertainty’ that accompanies the law’s enactment. On the other hand, one forward-thinking survey respondent shared: ‘I plan to be in a position to use this as an opportunity regardless.’”

Of the respondents, 10 percent were in health IT,  44 percent were self-identified as healthcare providers, nine percent were payers/insurance related, 21 percent were in life sciences, and 16 percent were service providers. On the initial impact of the ACA, 40 percent saw opportunity, 45 percent found it to be neutral, 12 percent saw it as negative, and only 3 percent seeing it as “disastrous.”

There were also questions on three of the mandatory measures from ACA including more consolidation within the industry, greater transparency (particularly of quality and cost data), and value-pricing and cost-cutting. Seventy-five percent of respondents expected a greater focus on value-pricing and cost-cutting, 68 percent said consolidation would be an outcome, and 66 percent anticipated greater transparency.

When it came to cost-cutting and value-priced purchasing, 45 percent of all the executives surveyed saw this trend as a positive, while 41 percent saw it in a negative light, and 14 percent were neutral.