"Hospital costs set to rise because of labor shortage?"
KNX-AM interviewed Dr. Jack Needleman about the impact of labor costs on the healthcare system for the “In Depth” program.
KNX-AM interviewed Dr. Jack Needleman, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Fred W. and Pamela K. Wasserman professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, about the impact of labor costs on the healthcare system for the “In Depth” program.
“Labor is about half the cost of hospitals, and nurses are about half the labor costs in hospitals … absolutely critical personnel, and you want them to be well trained and perform well,” Needleman said. “There are also some offsetting savings if you pay your staff better … if you pay your staff a little bit more and reduce the need to replace them with a traveler, because people haven’t left, you’re going to see some savings there as well.”
A number of hospitals are now seeking to raise their treatment prices by as much as 15 percent. They say they've been hit by salary increases for nurses. It comes as local health care workers are on strike at Cedars Sinai. So, are we going to see inflation in health care costs? How much will premiums go up? We go In Depth.
Faculty Referenced by this Article
Professor of Community Health Sciences & Health Policy and Management, and Associate Dean for Research
Dr. Ron Andersen is the Wasserman Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Departments of Health Policy and Management.
EMPH Academic Program Director with expertise in healthcare marketing, finance, and reproductive health policy, teaching in the EMPH, MPH, MHA program
Nationally recognized health services researcher and sociomedical scientist with 25+ years' experience in effectiveness and implementation research.
Dr. Michelle S. Keller is a health services researcher whose research focuses on the use and prescribing of high-risk medications.
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