2023 was a year of recovery for healthcare organizations nationwide, as many worked to rebuild financial health following a challenging 2022. While hospitals and health systems saw gains in revenues and margins, ongoing expense pressures slowed progress.​  

Despite continued challenges, healthcare leaders are optimistic about the year ahead. Our annual survey of healthcare finance professionals found that more than half are optimistic about their organizations’ financial health.​ Respondents cited their top priorities for 2024 as:​ 

  • Reducing costs​ 
  • Managing strategic and performance improvement initiatives​ 
  • Managing service line financial performance​ 

This report combines findings of our annual CFO Outlook survey with year-end data from more than 1,300 hospitals and health systems and more than 135,000 physicians, including Axiom™ Comparative Analytics and Strata’s All-Payer Claims and StrataSphere data.