Devices & Diagnostics, Health IT, Hospitals, Pharma

Healthcare CFOs are more positive about the current state of industry, a new report finds

A report measuring chief financial officer attitudes across seven industries found that healthcare industry CFOs […]

A report measuring chief financial officer attitudes across seven industries found that healthcare industry CFOs are more positive about the current state of their industry compared with their counterparts in other industries.

GE Capital’s U.S. Mid-Market U.S. Survey found that in the third quarter of the year, healthcare CFOs showed the largest increase in positive sentiment about their industry compared with what they felt in the first quarter of the year. They ranked their sentiment of industry strength at 5.8, up from 5.2 in Q1, out of a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 suggests extremely weak and 10 is extremely strong. Healthcare respondents in the survey on average have $117 million in revenue and a workforce of 820.

Overall, CFOs in all industries showed a slight drop in their assessments of their industries to 5.8 in the third quarter down from 5.9 in the first quarter.

Here are other healthcare-related findings from the survey

  • Economic growth: Healthcare CFOs now believe the U.S. economy is stable, but many do not expect it to be growing over the next 12 months. A full 53 percent expect the economy to remain the same, a 29 percentage-point increase, while only 33 percent expect the U.S. economy to grow, a decline of 29 percentage points.
  • Industry growth: Healthcare is the only industry to increase expectations for industry growth over the next 12 months (38 percent, up 13 percentage points). The overall average is 30 percent.
  • Top business concerns: Healthcare and transportation CFOs lead all industries (87 percent) concerning the impact healthcare costs will have on business performance, the No. 1 concern across all industries.
  • Profits: 47 percent expect profits to remain the same this year compared with last year, while 25 percent expect profits to decrease, down 9 percentage points since Q1.
  • Revenue: 49 percent expect their revenues to increase in 2012, which is a drop of 7 percentage points from what they felt in Q1.
  • Long-term growth: Jobs in healthcare continue to stay stable with healthcare CFOs showing the the largest decline  in their likelihood to lay off workers over the next one to three years, going from 23 percent in Q1 to 12 percent today. Another 46 percent expect to be in a moderate growth phase, an increase of 18 percentage points since Q1.

 [Photo Credit: Community Support Concept from Big Stock Photo]

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