At the fourth quarter earnings call on February 21, 2013, Jeff Silber, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, asked President and CEO Susan Salka how AMN Healthcare can help clients adjust to workforce changes created by healthcare reform. Her reply:
"… Clients want to get their arms around the new cost structures and find new ways to become more efficient and more agile and that leads to more sophisticated outsourcing solutions. Since labor is half of their budget, it's a big area of opportunity for them. And I think that our [managed services program] MSP solution, as well as recruitment process outsourcing and some of our consulting services, really help to identify those kinds of opportunities for them. We can show clients how we can help them reduce their aggregate cost of labor and yet still maintain flexibility as their needs might go up and down over time.
"In the future…, [healthcare consumers] will be driving more demand for early diagnostic and preventive care, and that will result in more demand for primary care physicians, advanced-practice nurse practitioners and physician assistants. So those are important areas for us. These are some of our faster growing areas today, and we're making sure that we have those properly resourced for the future.
"We also have been talking with clients about supporting them in the ACO model. And we have provided case managers, health coaches and other types of facilitators to help clients transition patients out of the hospital setting and prevent readmissions...
"It's believed that the greatest growth in healthcare in the future is going to come from outside of acute care. We're very mindful of that, and we're making sure that we are expanding our client base in non-acute settings such as home health, rehab, outpatient, subacute, and even telehealth. We are already staffing those markets, and we are adding resources so that we are well-positioned as these areas pick up even more momentum in the future."
About Susan Salka
Susan Salka is chief executive officer, president and director of AMN Healthcare Services, Inc., (AHS). Under her leadership, AMN has become known as the innovator in healthcare workforce solutions and the largest and most diversified healthcare staffing company in the nation. Read her full biography and that of other AMN leaders here.
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