Overcoming Talent Shortage in the Healthcare Revenue Cycle

A Kaufman Hall research study indicates that 2021 hospital revenue would likely be down between $53B and $122B due to the lingering effects of COVID-19. The potential impact of COVID-19 on hospital operating margins throughout 2021 will be negative for US hospitals overall; anywhere between 35.2% to 49.1% of hospitals could end up with negative margins, and rural hospitals could end up with as much as 38% lower margins than pre-pandemic levels. Factors driving these scenarios include recovery rates of hospital volumes, i.e., return of inpatient, outpatient, and ED volumes, COVID-19 vaccination progress across the nation, and decline in COVID-19 cases.

With the US healthcare costs increasing from 5% of GDP to over 18% in 2018, the United States has one of the highest healthcare costs in the world. Per the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) project, by 2028, these costs will rise to $6.2 trillion, or about $18,000 per person, and represent about 20 percent of GDP. These projections do not consider the pandemic's high testing and treatment costs and the long and short-term financial impact of such outbreaks.