Healthcare leaders identify financial sustainability as their biggest challenge

In a recent HealthLeaders Council survey created for Vizient, 101 respondents with roles including healthcare presidents and CEOs and clinical, operational, financial, IT and marketing leadership detailed their most pressing industry challenges.

The findings aligned with many of the focus areas outlined in the Vizient 2025 Trends Report, including payer strategy and patient access, acquisition and retention. In the HealthLeaders survey, financial sustainability specific to fixed and variable expense management took the top spot. (You can read more about how pharmacy innovation drives profitable growth in the Trends Report and prepare for expense planning in the coming year with the Spend Management Outlook).

Workforce was a top imperative across the board, coming in as respondents’ biggest strategic priority in 2025. One factor driving labor and productivity concerns is future virtual visit growth — 27% of all E&M visits are anticipated to be virtual by 2034, meaning healthcare organizations must strategize protocols with clinical staff to drive clinically appropriate virtual and in-person care channels.

“An integration of telemedicine, remote patient monitoring and process optimization not only addresses the challenges faced by healthcare organizations but also presents opportunities for APPs and other healthcare providers to deliver more efficient and personalized care, ultimately improving patient outcomes,” said Christen Hunt, associate vice president of workforce consulting, Vizient.

In the long-term, government regulations and policy, payer strategy and clinical quality improvement were respondents’ top priorities. The Vizient Trends Report identified new approaches to Medicare Advantage, noting that the long game for healthcare organizations is to develop a business model that includes quality care to foster a continuous, collaborative effort that improves cost structures on both sides.

“Most metrics for Medicare Advantage payers are provider driven. So, whether it's risk adjustment, coding for accurate diagnosis, star ratings improvement or total cost of care management, providers are in the driver’s seat more than ever if they're willing to change their business and care models,” said Joyjit Saha Choudhury, managing director, strategy and business transformation, Kaufman Hall.

Finally, the top three most anticipated healthcare innovations include AI and machine learning, data and analytics to understand trends, and convenient point-of-care diagnostics. According to a recent Vizient Member Networks survey, operational efficiency (88%) and quality outcomes (82%) are providers’ top two drivers for development, with clinical decision support tools rapidly becoming a top priority.

“Organizations are often data rich and information poor, and so these tools can reveal important interconnections. They are a sorting mechanism to determine what is most important to focus on, which you can then use to create objectives and action plans around those KPIs,” said Erik Swanson, senior vice president, data science and analytics, Kaufman Hall.

Learn more about industry trends and the strategies that drive performance improvements in the Vizient 2025 Trends Report and Data on the EDGE.