Dive Brief:
- A new survey by Citi Research of 98 hospitals has concluded that U.S. hospital admissions in November were the weakest in more than a decade.
- With October and November combined, admissions were down 4% to 5% from a year ago; this should impact hospitals' Q4 earnings and 2014 forecasts, researchers said.
- New Medicare billing rules treating stays of less than "two midnights" as outpatient have played a role in the downslide, as well as confusion around how the ACA will play out and changing physician employment and payment models, according to Citi analyst Gary Taylor.
Dive Insight:
They say it's always darkest before the dawn, but in this case, we might not be through with the darkness yet. Next year is shaping up to be a difficult one at best for hospitals, which, in addition to facing major financial stresses due to lowered inpatient volumes, are eyebrow-deep in challenging health IT projects such as the conversion to ICD-10 and stepping up their EMR to Meaningful Use Stage 2 compliance. No matter how you look at it, 2014 is going to be brutal—and some hospitals may not survive.