Hospital Employment Rises, But Investors Wary

Hospital employment continued rising in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported, but investors are wary because of the sequester. Moody’s Investor Services warned investors by giving non-profit hospitals a negative outlook in 2013 while keeping the outlook for for-profit hospitals stable. One place hospitals may scale back is staffing, Sarah Vennekotter, assistant vice president in Moody's not-for-profit healthcare division told Modern Healthcare. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), http://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/FFSProvPartProg/Downloads/2013-03-08-standalone.pdf payments will reduced by 2% across the board starting April 1. If Vennekotter’s prediction is right, employment figures at the nation’s hospitals may start to decline or at least not rise as quickly. For February, BLS statistics showed that employment at U.S. hospitals rose by 0.18% to a seasonally adjusted 4,829,200 people. This is 8,900 more people than in January and 58,200 more than a year ago.