Welcome to Gist Insights, where we share our thinking on healthcare trends and key issues facing the industry, and provide actionable guidance for CEOs and senior executives.
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Featured Insight
Preparing for generations of Medicare growth
by Gist Healthcare, Sep 24, 2021
The healthcare industry is now at the peak of the long-awaited transition of the Baby Boom generation into Medicare. The “greying” of the Boomers will…

Behavioral health utilization driven by fast-growing telehealth use
The pandemic worsened the existing mental health crisis in the United States, greatly increasing demand for care. In this week’s graphic, we highlight new data from JAMA Health Forum on mental healthcare trends from…
Private equity-backed practices flexing market share muscle
This week we showcase data from a recent American Antitrust Institute study on the growth of private equity (PE)-backed physician practices, and the impact of this growth on market competition and healthcare prices. From…
Hospital volumes shifting to outpatient and home-based settings
The pandemic accelerated the outpatient shift, which had been progressing steadily for decades, into a new gear, as safety-minded consumers avoided inpatient settings. Using the latest forecasting data from strategic healthcare…
Spotting a “skills mismatch” in the nursing pipeline
While last week’s graphic looked at how a wave of retirements has hit the nursing workforce, this week we take a look at the pipeline of nurses in training to fill that…
The changing face of the nursing workforce
Last week we discussed how hospitals are still struggling to retain talent. This week’s graphic offers one explanation for this trend: a significant share of older nurses, who continued to work during the…
Hospitals still struggling to retain talent
Of all the pandemic’s impacts still felt today, disruptions to the healthcare workforce and rising labor costs may be most impactful to current health system operations. Over the next three editions of…
Taking a historical view of hospital operating margins
So far, 2023 is shaping up to be a slightly better year for hospital performance, but it comes on the heels of unprecedented financial difficulties for the sector. In the graphic below, we…
Rural hospital closures rising again with end of COVID aid
After a brief reprieve thanks to COVID relief funds, rural hospital closures are once again on the rise, with 11 facilities already closing in the first half of this year. More rural facilities have…
How GLP-1 agonist drugs could change healthcare demand
With more than two in five American adults considered obese, the potential for GLP-1 agonist drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro to revolutionize obesity treatment seems limitless. In the graphic below, we looked…
The impact of Medicaid redeterminations on the uninsured rate
On April 1st, Medicaid’s pandemic-era continuous enrollment policy began to sunset, kicking off a 14-month window for states to reassess their Medicaid rolls. In this week’s graphic, we highlight new…