NEW YORK CITY-Strong employment growth in the healthcare sector is one of the prime benefits to come from the Affordable Health Care for America Act—ObamaCare in short form. That is how Scott Peters sees it, and in a recent exclusive interview with GlobeSt.com, he explained his views on the act as well as where he sees the market going in the near term.

Peters, president, chairman and CEO of Healthcare Trust of America, which went public just a year ago, calls the law a “Game-changer.” He cites predictions that over the next decade, healthcare-related employment will grow greater than 70% faster than the broader economy, directly because of the law. "In absolute terms," he says, "healthcare employment is projected to grow 24% versus only 14% for all of the US."

The trust, of course, really doesn't need the artificial boost of legislation, and it enters the second half of the year with a strong track record, including a 23% hike in 2012 FFO. He talks about the firm's performance along with the market-leading returns of the healthcare REIT sector as a whole, in the accompanying video.

In terms of outlook, Peters calls campus-based assets “core” to HTA's approach. “Medical office as a whole is a very under-invested asset class,” he says, indicating that REITs own only 20% of the national stock. “As we continue to grow, our asset-management philosophy can bring real institutionalized asset management to a campus. Tenants--the healthcare systems—benefit from the resultant cost savings. We like the on-campus asset.”

Peters says HTA will try to own as much of a campus as possible—300,000 square feet or more, “so we can manage it internally,” he explains. “The infrastructure costs that go into a hospital are $2 million or $3 million per bed. We can bring the efficiency and the cost savings to the healthcare systems as they continue to dispose of assets, plus the cost savings we can bring to our shareholders generate additional profits for them.”

Peters, whose operation asset-manages 87% of its 12.8-million-square-foot inventory, says however that “Foremost, asset management is about touching the tenant directly. That's the only way to truly understand what they want to accomplish on their campus. From a physician's perspective, it's all about energy . . . they want to see patients and they want to know that they're getting the best service in order to do that.”