US Healthcare Sector
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 975,398 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.
Industry size & Structure
The healthcare sector is comprised of 975,398 establishments that employ 17 million workers and generate $3.4 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
US Healthcare Sector Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Dec 17, 2024 - “Nuclear Verdicts” Increase
- 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.”
- The health sector is the top target for ransomware attacks, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. The US Congress is now considering legislation that would establish new cyber requirements for the health sector as a result of recent attacks like the February 2024 ransomware takedown of payments provider Change Healthcare that affected healthcare operations across the sector. The “Health Infrastructure Security and Accountability Act,” for example, would require the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and enforce a set of minimum cybersecurity standards for health care providers, health plans, clearinghouses, and business associates, including stronger standards for systemically important entities and entities important for national security. The bill would also remove the existing cap on fines under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which prevents the regulator from issuing fines which the bill sponsors say would be large enough to deter the largest corporations from ignoring cybersecurity standards, and would provide funding for hospitals -- particularly low-resource hospitals in rural and urban areas -- to improve their cybersecurity.
- Employment growth in the mental health field is expected to be triple the projection for a typical US job, according to a CNN analysis of US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Employment growth of mental health counselors is projected to increase most rapidly. Growth for these roles, which include substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, is set to increase 19%, going from about 450,000 workers in 2023 to 534,000 by 2033, making it among the top 20 fastest-growing US occupations. Marriage and family therapist jobs are expected to increase 16%. The BLS group “counselors, all other,” a catch-all category that includes jobs such as sexual assault counselors and anger control or grief counselors, is projected to show employment growth of 14% by 2033.
- Healthcare sector employment and average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first 10 months of 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The health care and social assistance sector was among the 10 sectors reporting growth, as measured by the Institute for Supply Management’s Services Purchasing Managers’ Index, in November 2024. Healthcare industry sales are forecast to grow at a 5.58% compounded annual rate from 2024 to 2028, faster than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.
Get A Demo
Vertical IQ’s Industry Intelligence Platform
See for yourself why over 60,000 users trust Vertical IQ for their industry research and call preparation needs. Our easy-to-digest industry insights save call preparation time and help differentiate you from the competition.
Build valuable, lasting relationships by having smarter conversations -
check out Vertical IQ today.