News: Almost 400k healthcare jobs created in 2019, federal data shows

Recently released federal data showed that nearly one out of five jobs created in 2019 was in healthcare, reported HealthLeaders Media. In 2019, healthcare created 399,000 jobs—nearly 33,000 new jobs each month. The 2019 figures include 269,000 new jobs in ambulatory services and 102,000 new hospital jobs. Of these, outpatient and ambulatory CDI programs are quickly growing within many facilities aiming to remain competitive with the ever-expanding healthcare industry.

More than 16.5 million people work in the healthcare sector at the end of 2019, which accounts for 11% of all jobs in the overall economy. The new data is in line with BLS projections that healthcare sector employment will grow 18% from 2016 to 2026, "much faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 2.4 million new jobs."

On the downside, hospital spending will grow about 5.5% each year, from $1.3 trillion in 2018 to $1.8 trillion in 2026, driven largely by those same demographics.

As for CDI, many organizations are realizing the importance of expanding their existing programs to cover areas that may be new to the majority of CDI specialists. As healthcare reimbursement shifts from fee-for-service to value-based models, payers rely increasingly on documentation data. CDI is now at the forefront in ensuring that the most specific diagnosis or procedure is captured across a patient’s care process, thus expansion into the areas of outpatient and ambulatory CDI can be expected to continue growing rapidly.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in HealthLeaders Media. Additional ACDIS articles on outpatient and ambulatory CDI expansion can be found here and here.