Health Care Under Pressure... from Health Care

Grant Thornton, LLP, just released the results of their annual survey of financial executives. It's interesting to note that 38% of the health care CFOs and controllers said they expected their organizations' hiring to increase over the next six months; this compares to 24% of financial managers from all industries. Other responses indicated that health care leaders are more concerned about economic pressures than the average across all industries surveyed. Of the 846 surveys received, 31% of the health care managers expected their organizations to raise prices within the next six months, compared to 22% of the national sample. Here's the punchline: 83% of health care financial executives named increases in employee benefits costs as the most significant factor in prices increases. Executives from other industries? 77% felt that the most significant pressure would come from employee benefits increases. Some are suggesting there's irony here in that the health care leaders have a higher degree of control over the very phenomenon they cite as a concern. Perhaps, but I think it's more likely that they are more sensitive to and aware of the likely upward pressure on costs. Read the full article here.