Hospitals and health systems face mounting financial pressure in the second half of 2025. Rapid increases in both labor and non-labor expenses continue to strain budgets. Looming federal policy changes have the potential to further accelerate rising drug and supply costs, and heighten bad debt and charity care burdens for organizations nationwide.
While health system operating margins held relatively steady at about 1% throughout the first half of the year, this narrow stability leaves little room for error. To preserve hard-won gains and position their organizations for the future, healthcare leaders must prioritize transparency and agility in financial decision-making. The ability to harness data effectively — transforming it from numbers into actionable insights — will be the defining factor for organizations navigating these challenges.
The path to resilience starts with asking the right questions. Every healthcare finance leader should be asking four essential questions about their organization’s data.
Four questions to guide data-driven leadership
1. Do end users trust the accuracy of our data?
Before financial leaders can leverage insights to drive improvement, they must understand whether users across the organization truly trust the accuracy of the data. If stakeholders in finance, operations, clinical, or leadership functions doubt the data’s reliability, they are far less likely to use it effectively. Whether technical, procedural, or cultural, identifying and addressing the sources of distrust is critical to building a strong foundation for data-driven decision-making.
2. How can better data literacy cultivate a data-driven culture?
Once trust in the data is established, leaders must focus on strengthening data literacy across the organization. A data-driven culture doesn’t happen by accident; it starts at the top. Executives and department heads must set an example by using data consistently to guide their decisions.
True data literacy goes beyond running reports or analyzing spreadsheets. It means understanding what the data are saying, applying insights to both immediate and long-term challenges, and embedding that thinking into the organization’s culture.
3. Who’s responsible for service line metrics and budget targets?
With data trust and literacy in place, accountability becomes the next critical step. Leaders must clearly define ownership for monitoring service line metrics, managing contribution margins, and achieving general ledger-based budget targets.
This means providing teams clarity in the following ways:
- Working with departmental leaders to establish which key performance indicators (KPIs) will be routinely monitored.
- Validating and sharing plan assumptions with key stakeholders.
- Communicating any needed updates to KPIs or target methodologies.
Ensuring accountability requires both monitoring performance over time and continually evaluating successes and challenges. With these data-backed insights, healthcare leaders can determine if financial incentives are aligned with service line strategies and if the appropriate stakeholders are involved in key decisions. Establishing accountability ensures that financial and operational performance improvements are not just identified but acted upon.
4. In what ways can data drive efficiency in the recruitment process?
Workforce challenges remain one of the most pressing financial risks for hospitals and health systems. With labor costs rising and recruitment hurdles persisting, data can serve as a lifeline.
By analyzing internal and external data — including procedure volumes, demographic shifts, and labor benchmarks — organizations can better assess staffing needs, identify shortages, and prevent overemployment. These insights can also sharpen recruitment strategies by identifying opportunities for internal efficiency and streamlining hiring pipelines. In turn, leaders can proactively address workforce issues before they become crises.
Why these questions matter now
Healthcare leaders consistently identify financial stability as their top priority. Findings from a recent survey reflect this focus:
- 44% of healthcare finance professionals expect operating margins to remain flat throughout 2025, while 36% anticipate modest growth.
- 91% of respondents said their organizations should do more to leverage financial and operational data in strategic decision-making.
- 52% cited labor costs as a top concern, with 30% naming recruitment and retention as critical challenges.
These findings underscore the urgency of embedding data into every level of financial and operational planning.
Looking ahead
As hospitals and health systems prepare for the uncertainties ahead, those best positioned for success will be the organizations actively applying data insights to every major decision. Resilience today requires more than strategy alone. It requires healthcare leaders to harness their organizations’ data with accuracy, consistency, and insight to ensure every decision is grounded in evidence.
Asking the right questions creates the foundation as healthcare leaders work to build data trust, literacy, and accountability. In an environment where stability can feel fleeting, precision with data is no longer optional — it’s essential.
Alina Henderson
Alina partners with Strata's healthcare experts and customers to innovate and bring new solutions to market. She leverages her 15+ years in healthcare finance to help healthcare delivery organizations across the country increase their teams’ financial agility and accountability with the use of Strata's market-leading products.
Prior to Strata, Alina worked at R1 RCM (formerly Accretive Health) in leadership roles spanning patient accounting operations, patient access product management, and go-to-market strategy. Prior to R1 RCM, she led JPMorgan Chase’s healthcare receivables product called HealthcareLink, owning the product roadmap, end user engagement, and pipeline growth.
Alina holds a Bachelors of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
