January 27, 2025- Workforce demands, capacity constraints and ever-changing payer and policy considerations highlight the enormous obstacles faced by the healthcare industry today. An aging patient population and high acuity rates over the next decade will continue to push lengths of stay longer and put pressure on the industry to adapt and make changes. But how does that look?
Sg2’s Impact of Change report forecasted inpatient utilization to rise 3% and days to increase 9% due to the prevalence of chronic disease and behavioral health conditions that spur demand for complex care and other services. Outpatient volumes are projected to jump to 17% due to outpatient surgical services driven by expanded capabilities and procedural needs.
Behavioral health volumes will grow to 8% inpatient and 26% outpatient visits. Finally, it predicts virtual care will encompass 23% of evaluation and management visits through greater adoption of technology, including home health expansion that is set to increase 22%.
“We’ve seen outpatient shift from the hospital to observation and hospital outpatient surgery gradually occur over the past 20 years,” said Maddie McDowell, MD, senior principal of intelligence for Sg2, a Vizient company. “It has accelerated in the last 10 years due to clinical innovations, payer pressures and changes in CMS payment policy and physician practice patterns, resulting in dynamic shifts across the care continuum and beyond the hospital to lower cost settings, including ASCs, urgent care clinics, virtual visits and the home.
Continue Reading in the latest issue of Repertoire Magazine.