Taking on Healthcare's Greatest Challenges in 2023

Nonprofit health systems and hospitals will take years to recover from the effects the pandemic has on their labor force, cash flow, and supplies. In fact, high labor and supply costs are adding unprecedented debt to hospitals leaving one health system reporting their debt as high as $6.34 billion in December 2022.

However, 2023 is projected to relieve some of the strain on health system finances, but may be too little too late for many rural hospitals at risk of immediate closure and leaving other hospitals cutting services and workforce numbers.

Labor Supply and Demand

As the biggest challenge facing healthcare, labor costs and shortages continue to grow prompting Finch Ratings to evaluate the healthcare sector as "deteriorating" moving into 2023. The issue lies in high turnover due to worker fatigue and burnout as well as heightened pay demands – especially for contracted or traveling nurses.

TAG TIPS:

To minimize the risk of overpayments and overcharges from staffing vendors, we can help you review your tracking and payment process to ensure all checks and balances are in place.

We can also perform analysis on your line item invoices, summary statements, and contracts to ensure all the expensive contracted staff are billed at the correct rate and for the correct hours.

Cash Flow Challenges

Labor is not the only issue plaguing healthcare. Health systems are struggling to improve cash flow. With large debt, higher labor and supply costs, rising inflation, and the end of the COVID relief funds, cash is becoming much more difficult to keep on hand.

We can help bring much-needed cash to your health system by performing a Recovery Audit.

More Challenges Facing Healthcare in 2023

Cash flow and labor threats are not the only instances threatening health systems in 2023. Higher drug costs, increased supply costs, and minimizing the exposure to cyber threat risks and ransom attacks round off the top issues healthcare leaders are battling.

Ready to partner with us?

Often internal controls and efficiency gains can lead to lowering labor needs and keep processes on track. We can partner with Internal Audit, Finance, and Supply Chain to aid in our specialized Procure to Pay space.