US Healthcare Sector NAICS 62
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Industry Summary
The 976,400 healthcare sector establishments in the US provide medical care, health services, and living accommodations to patients and residents. Services are paid for by medical insurers, patients, government programs, and families. The sector includes physicians offices, hospitals and clinics, mental health services, medical and imaging labs, home healthcare services, and nursing and residential care facilities.
Managing Rising Costs
The costs - particularly labor costs - of providing healthcare have increased steadily and have generally outpaced inflation.
Maintaining Skilled Staffing
Healthcare providers struggle with shortages of nurses, medical technicians, pharmacists, and other clinical workers.
Recent Developments
Aug 1, 2025 - President Trump Announces Health Care Records System for Consumers
- President Trump announced the development of a health care records system that he said would allow Americans to more easily and broadly share their personal health information with health care providers. More than 60 companies, including technology giants like Google, Amazon, and Apple, and health care giants like UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health, have agreed to share patient data in the system. The initiative will focus on diabetes and weight management, conversational artificial intelligence that helps patients, and digital tools such as QR codes and apps that register patients for check-ins or track medications.
- President Trump has signed into law the $3.4 trillion One Big Beautiful Bill that is estimated by Healio to include $930 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years. Nearly 12 million more people may be uninsured by 2034, with many losing coverage because of the Medicaid provisions in the bill, according to a US Congressional Budget Office analysis. For the first time in the Medicaid program’s nearly 60-year history, certain able-bodied adults aged 19 years to 64 years will be required to work, participate in job training, volunteer, or enroll in school at least 80 hours a month to maintain their Medicaid benefits. This will also be required for parents of children aged 14 years and older.
- US juries ordered companies in 47 different industries to pay a nuclear verdict — a jury award exceeding $10 million — in 2023, according to Marathon Strategies. Awards in some healthcare cases have reached high eight- or nine-figure sums, according to Bloomberg Law, as seen in recent lawsuits by Radiology Partners and Envision Healthcare against UnitedHealthcare. There were 89 cases with verdicts of more than $10 million in the US, the highest in 15 years and a 27% increase since 2022. Of those, 27 cases topped $100 million, eight topped $500 million, and two were in excess of $1 billion. The latter are referred to as “thermonuclear verdicts.”
- Healthcare sector employment and average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first five months of 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Healthcare industry sales are forecast to grow at a 3.29% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc. The Producer Price Index for healthcare services increased 3.01% year over year in June, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Industry Revenue
US Healthcare Sector
Industry Structure
Industry size & Structure
The healthcare sector is comprised of 976,000 establishments that employ 22.5 million workers and generate $3.3 trillion in annual revenue, according to government sources.
- The healthcare sector represents 7% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 11% of the country's workers.
- The sector is fragmented: the 20 largest firms represent 16% of revenue. The 50 largest firms represent 24.5% of revenue.
- In addition to employer establishments, the healthcare sector has nearly 1.3 million owner-operated establishments with no employees that generate $57.6 billion annually. Subsectors with the highest numbers of nonemployer establishments are home healthcare services (17.2%) and offices of physicians (10.7%). The owner of nonemployer establishments typically performs the work or uses contract labor.
- The health and education services sectors shed 167,000 establishments in 2021, which equals about 8.2% of existing establishments, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the two sectors added about 250,000 new establishments, which is equivalent to 12.3% of existing establishments. As a result, the sectors had a growth rate of 4.1%.
- The healthcare sector is forecast to grow its employment base by 12.3% overall in 2021-2031, which is much higher than the national average of 5.3% for all jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Factors contributing to job gains in the healthcare sector include the expanding and aging population, and a greater volume of treatment and exams performed by physician assistants (PAs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs) under the supervision of MDs.
Industry Forecast
Industry Forecast
US Healthcare Sector Industry Growth
Source: Vertical IQ and Inforum
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