With topics that range from Medicaid disenrollment to AI adoption, five recent studies offer a sharp look at the market, margin, and management trends shaping healthcare finance.
For CFOs navigating 2025’s turbulent financial landscape, the signal is getting harder to hear through the noise. Policy volatility, outpatient migration, workforce instability, and digital disruption are reshaping health system economics.
Five recent studies aim to cut through the complexity, providing data-driven insights that can help CFOs strengthen margins, recalibrate forecasts, and future-proof their capital strategies. Each offers a clear takeaway for financial leaders seeking to balance today’s pressures with tomorrow’s opportunities.
1. How Four Different Medicaid Disenrollment Scenarios Would Impact Hospitals’ Net Revenue and Income, by Kodiak Solutions
Kodiak Solutions’ latest analysis models four potential Medicaid disenrollment scenarios, using data from more than 2,100 hospitals and 300,000 physicians. The results are sobering: Hospitals could lose as much as $25 billion in annual revenue as Medicaid rolls contract and the uninsured population rises. The ripple effects, including higher uncompensated care, rising bad debt, and weakened margins, could test liquidity across the sector.
CFO takeaway: Reassess bad debt assumptions and payer-mix forecasts now. Medicaid disenrollment is a direct line to your income statement.
2. Healthcare Research Report: The Growth of Ambulatory Surgery Centers, by Colliers.
Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) generated $45 billion in revenue in 2024, with growth projected to reach $57 billion by 2030, according to a recent industry report. As reimbursement models evolve and outpatient technology advances, ASCs are becoming the preferred setting for many procedures, promising both efficiency and profitability.
CFO takeaway: Reevaluate your system’s ASC strategy. Joint ventures, capital partnerships, and volume migration models can safeguard margins as inpatient-to-outpatient shifts accelerate.
3. Volatility Report, by Crist Kolder Associates
Crist Kolder Associates’ 2024 Volatility Report found that healthcare CFOs now average 4.8 years in their role, shorter than in most other industries. Turnover reached 14.2% in the first half of 2024, a three-year high. The pressures of regulatory change, cost containment, and digital transformation are driving both burnout and board scrutiny.
CFO takeaway: Invest in leadership resilience. Building robust finance teams and succession pipelines is as critical as capital allocation in a volatile talent market.
4. Hospital Equipment and Supplies Market Size, Share and Trends, 2025 to 2034, by Precedence Research
According to a Precedence Research survey, some 46% of U.S. hospitals rented equipment in 2024, indicating a growing trend of hospitals turning to rental to manage budgets.
CFO takeaway: Analyze equipment forecasting data as well as health system operations to determine when to rent and when to buy.
Read our analysis or quick tips.
5. The Healthcare C-Suite’s Take on AI, by Sage Growth Partners
A Sage Growth Partners study underscores that while healthcare executives see AI as essential to long-term competitiveness, it’s also viewed as one of their top operational challenges. Leaders cited data quality, cost, and governance as key barriers to adoption.
CFO takeaway: Treat AI as a financial transformation initiative, not just a technology. Budgeting for data infrastructure and workforce upskilling will define whether AI boosts or burdens your bottom line.
Read our breakdown.
From Medicaid funding risk to digital transformation, today’s financial landscape demands that CFOs pair short-term risk management with long-term strategic positioning. Each of these studies offers a signal worth heeding, and a roadmap for the finance function’s evolving role in health system sustainability.
Marie DeFreitas is the CFO editor for HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
CFOs must prepare for major revenue disruption as Medicaid churn accelerates.
New modeling shows disenrollment could drive billions in lost revenue and rising bad debt—requiring more conservative payer-mix assumptions, liquidity planning, and scenario testing now.
CFO turnover is climbing while AI investment becomes unavoidable; finance leaders must strengthen talent pipelines and treat AI as a core financial transformation initiative supported by governance, data quality, and workforce upskilling.