2017 health care salary trends: The climb continues
Health care salaries have enjoyed a steady uphill climb since the Great Recession, a trend that experts predict will continue this year. This trend is likely to persist despite the current political climate that is making it difficult to predict what might happen to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the impact on health care employment and salaries.
“The demand for talent will continue to grow as the Baby Boomer generation retires and as more individuals have insurance, demand for services will grow,” said Dana Cates, a consultant at Lean Human Capital by HealthcareSource, a talent-management resource company based in Woburn, Mass.
Here are three things that will affect health care compensation this year.
Aging Population, ACA Drive Higher Overall Demand for Care
The one-two punch of an aging population and expanded coverage under the ACA has increased demand for health care, pushing wages up, said Katie Bardaro, vice president of data analytics at PayScale.
“Over the last two years, health care wages have grown by 4.2 percent, compared to national wages at 3.2 percent. If current patterns hold, we can likely expect wages to continue growing by another 2 percent to 4 percent in health care,” Bardaro said.
Front-line primary care providers in particular have seen high demand. Cates said physician assistants and nurse practitioners saw growth after the implementation of the ACA. Behavioral health and clinical informatics also have expanded under the ACA, Cates said, as more people have gained access to mental health services and organizations have turned to technology to manage information more efficiently.
Political Uncertainty Will Make Planning a Challenge
Medical facilities that are already dealing with an influx of patients due to more people having health coverage are finding it difficult to plan for the long term, said Dindy Robinson, director of Compensation and Employment at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. In addition, changes in international visa policies could make it difficult to fill positions with people from overseas, which will drive salaries up for those positions, Robinson said.
Meanwhile, demand for some positions may decline if there are major changes in the ACA.
“While we saw an increase in health development and community health employment opportunities last year, we have seen a sharp turn after the elections and in the first few weeks of the new presidency,” said Olivia Jaras, founder and CEO of Salary Coaching for Women in Hanover, New Hampshire. Most of these communitybased health initiatives have slowed or frozen new hiring until further notice.
Demand Will Increase Pay
Some health care roles will require special attention, Bardaro said, requiring employers to pay a premium to attract and retain top talent.
Hot health care roles in 2017 include:
• Nursing aides. Facilities have long relied on nurses’ aides to deliver many aspects of basic patient care. While this trend will continue, people in those roles are increasingly expected to use more sophisticated technology. That will require more employee training, Robinson said. In turn, these skills will drive up wages of the most highlyqualified workers.
• Nurses and physician assistants. Compensation for these positions will have more bargaining power due to high demand, Jaras says.
• Executive positions. Health care companies are paying a premium for talented executives who can navigate the quickly changing healthcare landscape, Jaras said.
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