Academic medical centers will struggle in the near future, according to Moody’s Investor Services.
While academic medical centers still have a number of strengths – offering higher-end services, high demand for their inpatient services, and generally strong cash flow margins – they also face a number of challenges that make life more difficult for them in a value-based payment world. Among those challenges, most notably, are higher costs associated with teaching and research, higher-acuity patients, and payment pressure from insurers. Another challenge: the shrinking gap between academic medical center hospitals and others as more care is delivered on an outpatient basis.
As a result, when Moody’s recently reviewed 43 academic health centers, it saw positive outlooks for just two, negative forecasts for nine, and deemed 32 stable.
Learn more in the Healthcare Dive article “Academic medical centers face headwinds in shift to value-based care, Moody’s says.”