Affordability, Labor Shortages Top Issues for Healthcare Execs

Confronting affordability and solving clinical labor shortages are among the top pivotal issues for healthcare executives in 2023, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

“The business environment of 2023 will likely force all health plans and health systems to confront affordability head on,” the report states. “They need to reshape strategies, reengineer financial and business models to aggressively deliver greater value — or others will.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic showed, remote and retail care are viable, even successful, alternatives to the traditional care model. Both types of care are a more convenient way to access medical care while typically costing patients less than visiting their doctor in the office or hospital.

But health systems and payers will have to transform their businesses while balancing a delicate clinical workforce. Health systems, in particular, are facing severe clinical labor shortages that are threatening margins and even hospital viability, PwC says.

Other pivotal issues for healthcare executives in 2023 include the digitization of healthcare, customer retention and acquisition, cybersecurity risk, and delivering value.

Delivering value to the consumer is key to confronting disrupting forces while ensuring the costs of care remain affordable for patients, the report indicates. Health systems will also “need to seize every transformational opportunity — from foundational technology investments, regulatory shifts, deals or crises — to clear the path for a drastically different cost, capabilities and business footprint by 2030.”

2030 is likely to be a pivotal year for health systems and payers, the report suggests. PwC believes that the healthcare sector will move to a new ecosystem in which organizations will need to adopt new roles to survive and thrive. They can either be orchestrators, which focus on delivering a seamless, humane experience; integrators, which align incentives and reduce waste for more convenience; or platform and solutions platers, which create technology and cloud infrastructure for better data management.

“Health services companies that follow their North Star — finding ways to develop stronger relationships with consumers and improve the patient experience, rethinking traditional workforce and business models, and continuing to invest in technology and innovation — will likely be well positioned for what’s next,” the report states.

Regardless of an organization’s new role, PwC advises executives to look at legacy plans and systems to confront costs. This could be staffing to demand, contracting labor spending, employing effective capacity management, embedding automation, and rethinking strategic sourcing and partnerships.

Healthcare executives will also need to embed health equity goals in business plans, leverage technology to address cost trends, and make medical care more efficient.

To address clinical labor shortages, PwC recommends new approaches to care delivery, such as practice models that require fewer on-site resources. “Providers might, for example, explore upskilling staff, raising salaries for on-site nurses and enabling the rest of the nursing staff to work from home,” the report says.

PwC also recommends that healthcare executives look to automation so clinicians can focus more on patient care. AI language chatbots may also help give patients more real-time interactions and services with providers.