This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Eric Borgerding, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
Borgerding discusses some of WHA’s top policy priorities for this year, as well as major trends affecting the industry such as the rising cost of delivering care.
“Like every part of the economy, for all businesses, costs are going up,” he said. “Production costs, labor costs, supply costs. That is true three-fold in health care … the cost of drugs, the cost of supplies — all going through the roof. And the cost of labor, which is typically the majority of a hospital’s operating budget.”
Despite this trend, he notes that “reimbursement for hospital care is essentially flat,” especially when compared to inflation. Meanwhile, the Medicare and Medicaid programs are making up a greater share of hospitals’ payer mix, he explained.
“Both of those pay well below the actual cost of providing care,” he said. “And those numbers are growing. Medicaid enrollment has gone up quite a bit, Medicare with the aging population in Wisconsin, that enrollment is also going up.”
Along with higher reimbursement rates for the health care sector, Borgerding said WHA is eyeing strategies for bolstering the industry’s workforce. He argues “there’s a lot more we can do” on this front.
“It’s a very, very competitive labor market, right? That’s not rocket science, everybody knows that. But in health care … it’s really difficult to just dial down output,” he said.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
