Managed Healthcare Executive® State of the Industry Survey Results, Part 1

What issues and challenges in healthcare will loom the largest this year?

That was question we asked in our annual State of the Industry this year. Respondents rated issues on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most important. We then weighted the answers with 10 having a value of 10, 9 having a value of 9, and so on.

The results were close but labor shortages ranked the highest in importance (weighted score of 6.73), followed by closing healthcare disparities (6.69) and long covid (6.63).

Adoption of the biosimilars (6.37) and interoperability (6.27) came out at the bottom of the importance ranking.

It is not surprising that labor shortages topped the list. The news has been full of stories about staffing shortages and related labor unrest. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected that there will be 200,000 openings for registered nurses each year over the next eight years. The bureau says employment of nurses is expected to grow by 6% in the 2020s, but that is about the same rate of growth as other occupations. The openings are the result of retirements and people leaving nursing for other professions.

The MHE State of the Survey was conducted in late November and early December 2022. Our colleagues at Medical Economics® helped disseminate the survey. The survey had just over 450 respondents.