Hospital Job Growth Up Vs. Other Health Jobs
The July Employment Situation Summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed health services jobs growing at about the same pace as other jobs: 0.18 percent growth versus 0.15 percent growth. This is a break from most previous months, when health services job growth outpaced other nonfarm civilian jobs significantly. 28,000 of the 215,000 jobs added in July were in health services.
However, there was a significant uptick in the rate of jobs growth in hospitals: Adding 16,000 jobs, hospital employment counted for significantly more than half of health services jobs growth (see Table I).
Jobs growth in nursing care facilities continued to stagnate, where employment in has been flat for twelve months (See Table II).
Over the longer term, ambulatory care services have accounted for the lion’s share of ne health services jobs. Lost month’s growth in hospital jobs may simply be catch up. It would be unfortunately if the trend of shifting health services jobs out of hospitals was over, because hospitals are the highest cost type of facility.
Outpatient and home health centers are growing. I suspect that has to do with two different causes. Hospitals are buying physician practices, which are then billed as outpatient centers. Home health is a substitute for more expensive hospitals or nursing homes. That is: seniors can stay in their homes longer before having to move to a nursing home if they have home care. Also, seniors can be discharged from the hospital sooner if they have home care. Hospitals have an incentive do discharge as soon as they can since Medicare pays based on the DRG system. A DRG pays a fixed amount, with only modest adjustments for longer lengths of stay.