Emerging Healthtech Trends for Healthcare Finance Leaders
Healthcare finance leaders chart a digital course to prosperity.
Finance leaders at healthcare companies around the country responded to our survey and shared their priorities and plans for evolving the finance function.
What are finance leaders in healthcare thinking of most?
The U.S. healthcare sector is stepping out of the shadow of COVID-19 and into a brighter medium-term outlook and easing inflationary pressures. Despite ongoing labor shortages, cost pressures and digital implementation challenges, it’s on track for significant growth. McKinsey projects a 7% CAGR in total profit across the sector, reaching $819 billion by 2027.1
We surveyed 250 finance executives in U.S. healthcare to find out how their finance teams are aiming for growth. How are their priorities and perceptions of risk evolving? Are they doing anything differently from finance teams in other sectors? And how are they planning to keep up with healthcare technology trends such as artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare?
Here’s what we learned:
1. There’s a shift to growth.
Cost-cutting strategies in healthcare are still a top priority, but there are signs that healthcare industry finance leaders are gradually refocusing on growth.
- 40% are targeting new investments, up from 33% in 2023.
- 33% are evaluating new business models, up from 25% in 2023.
2. The greatest risk is talent.
The top risk for survey respondents continues to be staff shortages and employee retention in healthcare, which this year rank much higher than other challenges such as cyber attacks and high inflation. In the healthcare sector, 44% of leaders say this is their top concern, compared with 40% in other sectors.
3. There’s a sharper focus on AI.
Healthcare finance leaders are actively exploring healthcare technology, or healthtech, including AI. They’re interested in how AI can identify fraud, manage risk and automate processes, and 57% say they’re investing in AI – compared with 45% in 2023. In other sectors, just 50% are investing in the technology.
4. Despite high aspirations, there is slow progress on payments transformation.
Healthcare finance leaders are increasingly prioritizing transparency and efficiency in payments. But the complexity of healthcare payment transactions has led the sector’s finance leaders to adopt new payment methods more slowly than finance leaders in other sectors. This slow uptake has also delayed their adoption of embedded payments:
- 46% use instant payments, compared with 52% in other sectors.
- 26% use application programming interfaces (APIs) to make and receive payments, compared with 31% in other sectors.
Stay Connected
Read the full healthcare industry report for a detailed analysis.
Our research shows that healthcare finance leaders are not like finance leaders in other sectors when it comes to their perception of risk and their approach to innovation. Faced with obstacles such as labor shortages and slow digital payments adoption, what are healthcare finance leaders doing to manage current challenges, embrace technology in healthcare and create a strong foundation upon which to build growth?
More insights from our research
2024 CFO Insights Report
2,030 finance financial leaders voice their views.
We surveyed senior financial leaders at companies across the nation and across industries to find out what they view as the most important opportunities and risks now and in the near future. The responses provided exceptional insights.
Economic insights
Are there reasons for economic optimism?
With inflation slowing, business demand holding up and the labor market strong, the finance leaders we surveyed appear to have a cautiously optimistic outlook.
Digital Transformation
Finance leaders want to transform faster
Our survey shows only one in five finance leaders are satisfied with how their organizations are progressing with digital transformation. Read this article to discover multiple ways to accelerate digital transformation despite obstacles.
Payment insights
Payments transformation is on the rise.
Demand for payments transformation is growing, thanks in part to a growing need for risk management. 59% of our survey respondents said reducing risk in payment operations is a major goal this year. Digital and embedded payment adoption will be key.
California Report
California-specific data from our survey
253 finance leaders at companies in California told us how they are working their way through a dynamic economy, business and geopolitical environment. Find out whether, and how much, their priorities differ from those of finance leaders in the rest of the country.