Inflation, operating costs pose challenges to medical providers

Hospitals and healthcare providers are facing major challenges due to inflation, rising expenses, and staffing shortages, says a new report released by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).

For its report, "Maintaining Margin in the Inflation Era," the MGMA gathered data from more than 4,000 healthcare organizations of various specialties and practice types. Key findings from the report include the following:

• Productivity levels are low in most physician-owned and hospital-owned practices compared with prepandemic levels in 2019.
• Medical revenue has increased within the last year, with the biggest jump in physician-owned nonsurgical practices.
• Operating costs in physician-owned primary care and nonsurgical practices have increased between 2020 and 2021.
• Operating costs per full-time physician have increased among hospital-owned practices from 2020 to 2021, while hospital-owned primary care practices have seen a nearly 11% decline.