Healthcare’s broken math: 11 signs the numbers don’t add up

Healthcare’s broken math: 11 signs the numbers don’t add up
Becker's Hospital Review; by Scott Becker, Molly Gamble; 6/25/25
Healthcare has a daunting and growing supply and demand problem. We have a growing population in the United States and not enough physicians, nurses, allied healthcare providers and technicians. It is a very clear and simple math problem. We have approximately 340 million people in the United States and only about 840,000 direct patient care physicians and about 5.3 million nurses. Similarly, we face shortages across the board in other provider types and critical staff roles. [Imbalances include:]

1. There is uneven distribution on top of shortages
2. Expanding care roles can work in many cases, but not all
3. You increasingly need to know someone to get care from the right provider
4. Alternative business models are growing due to the limited supply of physicians
5. It’s not just headcount — it’s hours [continue reading...]