Tag Archives: trends

Healthcare Financial Trends for 2022

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The trajectory of the COVID-19 crisis suggests a long-tailed recovery. The latest financial data reveals the ongoing challenges.

The trajectory of the COVID-19 crisis suggests a long-tailed recovery. The latest financial data reveals the ongoing challenges.

COVID-19 continues to dominate the headlines, and its massive influence on healthcare will extend throughout 2022. At the same time, longstanding issues demand attention. CommerceHealthcare® recently completed its annual market scan and analysis of leading issues in finance and revenue cycle management (RCM). Healthcare Finance Trends for 2022 detail eleven trends that carry significant implications for the economic and operational wellbeing of health systems, hospitals, and physician practices.

Another Year of Financial Recovery

The trajectory of the COVID-19 crisis suggests a long-tailed recovery. The latest financial data reveals the ongoing challenges.

  1. Margin/Profitability. More than a third of hospitals maintained negative operating margins during 2021. Estimated total industry net income loss was $54 billion and median margin 11% below pre-pandemic levels. Hospitals paid an additional $24 billion for clinical labor during the year, $17 million for the average 500-bed hospital. Medical practices have suffered as well. Under 30% of surveyed primary care practices reported being financially healthy.
  2. Revenue and Volume. An encouraging but decidedly mixed picture emerges on the demand side. Through August 2021, overall healthcare spending was 7.2% higher than the previous year, distributed as displayed in Figure 1. Spending has lagged GDP growth. Hospital revenue grew, but volume of overall discharges and emergency department (ED) visits remains depressed from 2019 and flat for OR minutes. The longer-term utilization outlook sees inpatient volume decreasing 1% through the end of the decade, outpatient rising 14% and ED growing 5% for emergent and falling 15% for urgent.
  3. Cash/Liquidity. This metric was bolstered by COVID-19 government subsidies and expedited insurance reimbursements. Disciplined cash management will be required as these supports are removed. In fact, a recent article detailed an emerging liquidity challenge. Major insurers are behind on billions of dollars in payments for various reasons.7
  4. Medical Cost Trend. Another closely watched indicator is growth in employer medical costs. Forecasts for 2022 include:
    1. PwC: 6.5%8
    2. Willis Towers: 5.2%9
    3. Aon: 4.8%10
Health spending by category

Health spending by category

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Separating Long-Term Supply Chain Technology Developments from Temporary Industry Disruptors

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While technological innovations can revolutionize how supply chain businesses advance, it’s important for all participants to be a little bit skeptical when supposedly new game-changing technologies are introduced.

Third-Party Providers Navigate Supply Chain Technology Trends

Technology partners with a long-game approach to development and implementation understand that trends come and go, and it can make little sense to heavily invest in trumpeted technological advancements just because they’re “the new thing.”

While technological advancement brings with it solutions that can revolutionize how businesses in the supply chain interact, it’s important for all stakeholders to be a little bit skeptical when any company introduces a supposedly game-changing new technology.

First Adopters of New Technology

3PLs are typically the first adopters of new technology, as a huge part of their value proposition to their clients is their ability to utilize advanced technology to solve their supply chain challenges.

These logistics providers constantly keep their ears to the ground attending conferences and researching the latest technologies seeking new capabilities. 3PLs can make a single investment in technology and leverage that capability across many shippers.

Technology Partners

Technology partners aren’t simply there to help companies adapt to new technologies. Technological advancements in the supply chain have brought increasing amounts of logistics data to industry stakeholders.

This has, in turn, led to a jump in advanced analytics to turn that data into actionable information, a skill in which technology providers excel. Shippers are using analytics in conjunction with real-time visibility data to identify bottlenecks within their own processes and providers’ networks. This visibility allows them to estimate when shipments will arrive at the intended destination with greater certainty. The future is very bright in this area due to improving visibility technology, more advanced analytics, and integrated collaboration tools.

Technology Advancements

Rapid advancements in technology are changing the industry for the better, and at SMC³, our goal is to incorporate these new technologies into the supply chain processes of our clients. SMC³ truly is a neutral third party; we work for the good of the entire supply chain, helping supply chain companies separate lasting supply chain advancements from temporary industry disruptors.

SMC³ accomplishes this flexibility and adaptability by building our solutions for fast, painless integrations to TMS systems and other applications. SMC³’s goal is always to help our clients get up and running as quickly as possible, so they can start consuming data via our solutions and begin to optimize the lifecycle of their LTL shipments.

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Supply chain – predictions for 2018 trends

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When Elon Musk recently announced that Tesla would start building electric semi-trucks that would have 500-mile range and come with a version of Tesla’s Autopilot driving aid, the world realized it wasn’t a matter of if, but when these new trucks would be hitting the highways. After all, this is the same guy who said he was sick of sitting in traffic and launched the Boring Company, which is now tunneling beneath the gridlocked freeways of Los Angeles. And let’s not forget Musk’s SpaceX, the Hyperloop and Tesla – all radically different companies predicated on technology innovation, creativity, disruption and long term commercial viability.

The pace of innovation is picking up steam at an exponential rate. With advanced hardware, software and connectivity becoming accessible and cost effective on a global scale, we’re experiencing an innovation shift from desiring “better gadgets” to discovering entire new business categories built around technology. The implications for consumers is exhilarating and at times terrifying. The implications for businesses is terrifying and at times exhilarating.

Technology has become fully embedded in supply chain management – just go to any supply chain conference and you will find agendas dominated by tech talk. Robots, self-driving vehicles, electric trucks, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), and new mobile-enabled categories are all poised to explode onto the scene in one form or another. It’s hard to predict what’s real and what will fade away, but expect 2018 to become a year of heavy innovation for supply chain leaders, even if it’s experimental. But…

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