12 healthcare trends and issues we are following for 2024

12 healthcare trends and issues we are following for 2024 
Becker's Hospital Review, by Scott Becker and Molly Gamble; 1/2/24
The year begins with a number of challenges that have only intensified for U.S. healthcare providers. Below are a dozen trends and issues that commanded our attention throughout 2023 and hold our curiosity in the year ahead. These patterns and shifts directly or indirectly influence how healthcare providers fare in 2024, and ultimately affect how Americans access, afford and receive care.

1. Healthcare has a worsening numbers problem. ...
2. The payers have become massive. ...
3. The largest employer of physicians is one of the world's largest insurers. ...
4. Governmental healthcare payers, between Medicare and Medicaid, are now combined to be larger than commercial payer sources. ...
5. Technology is part of a solution, but not the entire solution. ...
6. The movement to value-based care is still very much a work in process. ...
7. Medicare Advantage now covers more than half of the Medicare population. ...
8. Mental and behavioral health in the U.S. has reached a critical stage with a worsening imbalance of needs and demands versus supply. ...
9. Washington, D.C., tends to make noise about the impact of private equity in healthcare. ...
10. Aging well/preventive health is seeing a growth in interest. ...
11. The diabetes/obesity drugs can have a large positive long term impact on healthcare. ...
12. Hospital margins largely improved in 2023, but hospitals face huge long-term financial challenges. ...