As revenue slips, study aims to calculate true cost of agency staffing

January 1, 1970

A new report predicts post-acute care providers will miss out on nearly $20 billion in revenue this year, not due to COVID but rather staffing challenges.

Consulting firm Oliver Wyman calculated that understaffing resulting in lower occupancy will lead to $19.4 billion in unrealized revenue. The biggest hits will come in the Northeast and North Central U.S., the firm projected. The study also sought to measure just how much various staffing needs and strategies are costing providers.

“It has become extremely difficult since the pandemic to maintain the workforce needed to reach full census,” Deidre Baggot, a partner at Oliver Wyman, said in announcing the study results Thursday morning. “As a result, facilities lost between $2,656 and $7,771 a day in 2020 and 2021 and are estimated to lose between $2,330 to $5,882 this year. To increase admissions, it’s imperative that post-acute care facilities rethink how they manage their workforce and start to spend more strategically on staffing.”

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