The U.S. healthcare sector is stepping out of the shadow of COVID-19 and into a brighter medium-term outlook and easing inflationary pressures. Despite ongoing labor shortages, cost pressures and digital implementation challenges, it’s on track for significant growth. McKinsey projects a 7% CAGR in total profit across the sector, reaching $819 billion by 2027.1
We surveyed 250 finance executives in U.S. healthcare to find out how their finance teams are aiming for growth. How are their priorities and perceptions of risk evolving? Are they doing anything differently from finance teams in other sectors? And how are they planning to keep up with healthcare technology trends such as artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare?
Cost-cutting strategies in healthcare are still a top priority, but there are signs that healthcare industry finance leaders are gradually refocusing on growth.
The top risk for survey respondents continues to be staff shortages and employee retention in healthcare, which this year rank much higher than other challenges such as cyber attacks and high inflation. In the healthcare sector, 44% of leaders say this is their top concern, compared with 40% in other sectors.
Healthcare finance leaders are actively exploring healthcare technology, or healthtech, including AI. They’re interested in how AI can identify fraud, manage risk and automate processes, and 57% say they’re investing in AI – compared with 45% in 2023. In other sectors, just 50% are investing in the technology.
Healthcare finance leaders are increasingly prioritizing transparency and efficiency in payments. But the complexity of healthcare payment transactions has led the sector’s finance leaders to adopt new payment methods more slowly than finance leaders in other sectors. This slow uptake has also delayed their adoption of embedded payments:
Our research shows that healthcare finance leaders are not like finance leaders in other sectors when it comes to their perception of risk and their approach to innovation. Faced with obstacles such as labor shortages and slow digital payments adoption, what are healthcare finance leaders doing to manage current challenges, embrace technology in healthcare and create a strong foundation upon which to build growth?
2024 CFO Insights Report
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