HealthLeaders Media's annual industry outlook survey asked senior healthcare leaders about the challenges their organizations are facing as they transition to value-based care models.
According to the January/February 2017 HealthLeaders Media Annual Industry Outlook Survey, healthcare leaders will rely on several key areas to fuel financial growth at their organizations over the next five years.
More than half (55%) of respondents say that expanding outpatient services is how their organization will fuel financial growth over the next five years, followed by developing or joining a shared risk, shared savings effort (50%), and executing a campaign to extend an existing market (39%).
This year's survey results are comparable to last year's, where the top three were expanding outpatient services (56%), developing or joining a shared risk, shared savings effort (49%), and executing a campaign to extend an existing market (46%).
Survey data based on industry setting indicates that a greater share of hospitals (77%) and health systems (70%) than physician organizations (40%) cite expanding outpatient services to fuel financial growth over the next five years, and a greater share of health systems (53%) and hospitals (51%) than physician organizations (44%) mention developing or joining a shared risk, shared savings effort to do the same.
Further, a greater share of hospitals (47%) and health systems (41%) than physician organizations (25%) cite executing a campaign to extend an existing market to fuel their financial growth.
The results also reveal that, based on total net patient revenue, organizational size is correlated with the degree to which respondents say their organizations will fuel financial growth through expanding outpatient services. For example, based on net patient revenue, a greater share of large (71%) organizations than small (58%) and medium (49%) organizations say they expect to grow this way.
Provider balance sheets will continue to face an uphill climb over the next year. Forty-one percent of respondents say they expect their organizations will produce positive financial results in their current fiscal year, and another 9% expect strongly positive results. Conversely, 11% of respondents indicate that their organizations have a negative financial outlook, and 4% have a strongly negative outlook. Thirty-two percent expect results to be flat.
The combined results for positive or strongly positive (50%) are seven percentage points lower compared with last year's survey (57%), and the combined results for negative or strongly negative (15%) are four points higher (11%), indicating that financial conditions continue to be challenging for many providers. The results for flat (32%) are five percentage points higher (27%) than last year.
Jonathan Bees is a research analyst for HealthLeaders.