Health IT job market continues rise

Ruling on ACA seen as boost

Employment opportunities continued to trend up in the medical industry, according to the newest situation report, released last month, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than 13,000 jobs were created in healthcare alone. Planned layoffs also hit a 13 month low, down almost 40 percent from the announced cuts in May, according to the global outplacement firm, Challenger, Grey and Christmas. 

The Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is expected to boost the healthcare IT job market.

Healthcare executive search firm Witt/Kieffer expects to see a 29 percent increase in its healthcare practice this year across all geographic regions, with the Midwest, West and Southeast showing particular strength, partially due to demographic and population shifts. In particular, Witt/Kieffer projects:

• A 121 percent growth in Chief Medical Officer searches, and a 43 percent growth in MD executive searches overall;

• A large jump in healthcare IT searches, with nearly a 40 percent increase over last year;

• A 30 percent growth in COO/Senior Operations searches and a 74 percent growth in searches for finance executives.

Dave Roberts, vice president of government relations at HIMSS, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would be able to lessen the monetary burden that many hospitals are currently dealing with due to uncompensated emergency care. This can give hospitals the opportunity to address staffing shortages, as well as purchase and implement health IT programs even beyond what is presently required to satisfy regulatory meaningful use standards. 

Justin Barnes, vice president of marketing, industry and government affairs at Greenway Medical Technologies told Healthcare IT News he expects the ACA ruling will provide an unprecedented potential to save money for everyone who has a stake in healthcare funding. 

"This has the ability to save all stakeholders a lot of money as we work in partnership to improve care quality, patient safety as well as engage and empower our patients turning them into powerful consumers," Barnes said.

Yet, even with all of this positive momentum within the medical field, there are still many who remain unconvinced as there are job seekers whose resumes continue to receive little to no response, and companies whose job postings continue to go unfilled.