Healthcare Workforce – 2025 Health IT Predictions

As we wrap up another year and get ready for 2025 to begin, it is once again time for everyone’s favorite annual tradition of Health IT Predictions! We reached out to our incredible Healthcare IT Today Community to get their insights on what will happen in the coming year and boy did they deliver. We in fact got so many responses to our prompt this year, that we have had to narrow them down to just the best and most interesting. Check out the community’s predictions down below and be sure to follow along as we share more 2025 Health IT Predictions!

Check out our community’s Healthcare Workforce predictions:

Michael Armstrong, Chief Technology Officer at Authenticx
Enterprise healthcare organizations will take a lesson from smaller companies. Enterprise healthcare organizations typically don’t have the infrastructure to innovate and rapidly pivot, while smaller companies may be better positioned to innovate with data because they have more organizational flexibility. Large organizations will need internal incentives to prompt innovation and improve efficiency at an enterprise scale.

Mary Russell, Senior Director, Clinical Services at CliniComp
As hospital systems continue to recover from the financial impacts of the pandemic, addressing workforce challenges will be paramount in 2025. Recruitment and retention will be bolstered by strategic partnerships with universities to develop specialized content that meets market needs, creating a robust talent pipeline. Revamping benefits and developing residency programs tailored to rural areas will attract and retain talent where it’s needed most.

EHR optimization will improve clinical workflows, allowing providers to focus more on patient care, thus enhancing job satisfaction. Furthermore, reducing reliance on contract nursing positions will ensure higher quality and consistency of care. By embracing these solutions, healthcare organizations can create a more stable, satisfied, and effective workforce.

Andrea Greco, SVP of Healthcare Safety at CENTEGIX
In 2025, workplace violence will continue to sit at the forefront of healthcare challenges, especially given staffing shortages, increased patient and visitor agitation, and lack of trust in the industry. This must be addressed to preserve high-quality patient care. In 2023, over 80% of nurses experienced workplace violence. When staff members feel better protected and less vulnerable, they can focus more effort on patient outcomes and experience.

This is how workplace safety directly impacts patient care. Investing in safety systems will be imperative in safeguarding staff, while also helping to improve employee support and wellness, retention, and recruitment efforts. However, not all solutions are created equal. The quest for safer environments can introduce new problems, like employee privacy concerns due to Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS). Healthcare facilities must build trust with their staff and have open dialogue around safety measures to ensure all concerns are heard and addressed. Healthcare workers deserve to feel confident and safe in their workplace.

Deb Jones, Sr. Director, Insights Strategy at Tendo
In 2025, quality will solidify its role as the ultimate differentiator in healthcare, shaping not only patient outcomes but also the reputation and success of organizations. High-quality care ensures better health outcomes, reduces avoidable costs, and enhances patient satisfaction outcomes that resonate across the industry. To remain competitive, organizations must prioritize quality as a core metric, embedding it into their strategic frameworks. This involves leveraging data analytics to track performance, adopting evidence-based practices to improve outcomes, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Quality must also extend beyond clinical care to include patient experiences, operational excellence, and accessibility. By focusing on quality as a measurable, actionable goal, healthcare organizations can build stronger relationships with stakeholders and create sustainable advantages in an increasingly competitive market. With patients and payers alike demanding transparency, the quality of care delivered, and the ratings of healthcare organizations will directly influence consumer trust and choice. In 2025, quality isn’t just a benchmark; it’s the standard by which success is defined.

Jen Goldsmith, Co-Founder of Tendo
In 2025, understanding and supporting healthcare quality will become a critical and ubiquitous pursuit. It will be recognized as a collective responsibility shared by many within a healthcare system. From physicians ensuring best-practice care delivery and accurate clinical documentation, to site leaders fostering a culture of accountability, and documentation specialists maintaining accurate records that drive informed decisions, every team member plays a pivotal role in delivering high-quality outcomes. Quality initiatives require alignment and collaboration at all levels, with shared goals and clear metrics guiding efforts.

Whether it’s frontline staff improving patient interactions, administrators optimizing workflows, or data teams leveraging analytics to identify gaps, the commitment to quality must be deeply ingrained in daily operations. By embedding quality into every role and process, organizations can ensure that excellence becomes a systemic value, not just a departmental goal. This collective approach not only elevates patient outcomes but also strengthens organizational performance, making quality everyone’s job and everyone’s achievement.

David J. Sand, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at ZeOmega
Medicare Advantage (MA) will be a hotbed of activity in 2025. The eligible population is growing and expressing a preference for MA over traditional Medicare. While the MA population grows and the source of payment for institutional and individual providers shifts to the government-sponsored space, there are significant headwinds that providers and payers will face. The rate increases provided by the CMS were lower than any of the stakeholders expected or desired. The shift in risk adjustment to v28 will yield downward pressure on risk adjustment factors and payments. Similarly, payers are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve lucrative HEDIS/Quality bonuses. Payers will pay more attention to “Duals” dual-eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and the richer pmpm payments they receive to enroll them.

Karl Ulfers, Co-Founder and CEO at DUOS
There’s understandable concern in healthcare about how AI can inadvertently contribute to biases or limit care. However, I believe there’s a clear opportunity to reverse that narrative by making AI an instrument for increased access and scale. As our country continues to age, we will need to care for larger populations while, at the same time, we are barreling towards a future with fewer people to care for our aging population. This was already predicted to be a problem by the early 2030’s when we will have more people over 65 than under 18 for the first time in our country’s history. This challenge will likely accelerate due to the incoming administration’s immigration policies.

Due to these dynamic uses of AI to automate the navigation and administration of the healthcare system is going to become a necessity to help ensure our aging populations can easily use their benefits and government programs to pay for the services they need to age. Specifically, we see a clear opportunity to leverage large language models (LLM) and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) trained on payers’ benefits documents and State, Federal, and Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits to make it easy for older adults, caregivers, providers, care managers, and payers to navigate and receive the services they need. We believe that these models combined with digital and voice engagement can help free up substantial pools of labor needed to care for the aging population.

Kelly Villella, Segment Leader & Director of Product Management, Med Ed at Wolters Kluwer Health
Technology use accelerates for educating students for high-demand health professions that require advanced degrees. As healthcare shifts from reactive to proactive approaches, the demand for specialized care in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and exercise physiology is projected to grow significantly. The number of jobs in these three professions alone is projected to increase by 12-15% over the next decade. Health professionals will play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle and in treating both chronic and acute conditions globally.

In response to these changing demands, the degree requirements for several areas of the health professions have been raised in recent years, reflecting a need for advanced knowledge and skills. As educational institutions grow these programs to meet demand and evolve to educate the influx of students, they will increasingly integrate technology into their curricula to enhance the learning experience, and to help students better understand complex concepts and practice applying foundational knowledge earlier in the curriculum. We expect educator’s use of technology, from virtual simulation and AI to video libraries and digital courseware to accelerate as it better prepares prospective health professionals to achieve positive patient outcomes and excel in their future careers.

Kelly Dries, Director of Nursing Program Success at Wolters Kluwer Health
In 2025, the use of technology in onboarding new nurse educators will evolve to offer tailored training pathways through simulations, interactive modules, and AI-enhanced learning platforms. The industry is facing a massive influx of new nurse faculty that is rapidly growing to meet the demand of nursing students. Onboarding both educators and students with plug-and-play technology will be key for finding efficiencies and continuing to graduate nursing students who are ready for real-world practice.

John Bou, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Modio Health
For 2025, I see the start of a big shift towards the concept of ‘continuous credentialing’ of healthcare providers, driven by machine learning, automation, and AI. Today, credentialing remains a critical but tedious process, often taking weeks or even months to complete. There are very few mandatory tasks in healthcare that have had so little traction in terms of innovation to improve the process. Provider credentialing is still a significant pain point for healthcare organizations eager to bring providers on board safely, swiftly, and efficiently.

With data-sharing initiatives and AI advancements, I see credentialing evolving towards a process that eliminates unnecessary delays and can happen in real time. Getting to that future requires a few critical steps, like creating centralized, standardized credentialing data and achieving true interoperability across credentialing systems. Progress is already underway, but as we standardize data and enable systems to talk to each other, the vision of real-time credentialing can become a reality. With these changes, we’re paving the way for a healthcare environment where licensing and credentialing may one day be as fast as a few clicks.

Laura Cave, Chief Brand Officer at Paytient
In 2025, we expect to see enhancements in the patient experience and revenue cycle management as health plans integrate financial solutions directly into their offerings. Health systems, payers, and employers are increasingly offering flexible payment options alongside health insurance to reduce financial barriers that often deter patients from seeking care. This matters for providers because unfunded care poses a risk to both patient well-being and the revenue cycle, as patients unsure if they’ll be able to pay are more likely to avoid necessary treatment.

Traditional solutions like interest-bearing patient loans and underfunded HSAs have led to patients deferring or struggling to pay for care, impacting health systems and patient outcomes. A 2024 study revealed that 40% of workplace-insured Americans defer care due to cost concerns, which can worsen health outcomes over time. To address these challenges, more payers are turning to options like the Health Payment Account (HPA), bundled alongside health plans to offer patients flexible payment pathways. This kind of support builds confidence among patients, encouraging them to seek care with the assurance they can manage their medical expenses.

Health systems benefit from improved patient experience, improved adherence to treatment plans, and stronger retention. As high deductibles remain standard and price transparency expands, now is the time for healthcare leaders to consider how they can more equitably empower employees and health plan members with solutions that strengthen both financial security and patient loyalty.

Dr. Dan Stevens, Healthcare and Life Sciences Solutions Architect at Lenovo
In 2025, the healthcare industry will continue to be tasked with addressing the rising costs of care, managing the health of the aging population, and improving the quality of and access to care. AI can play a significant role in overcoming all of these challenges by utilizing and analyzing the vast amounts of data our industry has been accumulating from the digital technology investments made in past decades. AI’s ability to quickly deliver actionable insights can transform clinical care by providing diagnostic suggestions, guiding image analysis, alerting the risk of an acute health episode, or predicting resource utilization. Additionally, it could even be leveraged to help first responders make life-saving treatment decisions in emergency scenarios, such as natural disasters, where access to medical resources and personnel may not be available.

Carrie Nelson, MD, Chief Medical Officer at KeyCare
Hospitals and health systems continue to endure rising costs and difficulty attracting front-line clinical workers, making it imperative that they expand virtual care to account for these shortfalls. By adding capacity with virtual care partners, health systems can widen their digital front doors with a national network of virtual physicians that augments their own care teams and broadens patient access.

L. Heath Sampson, President and Chief Executive Officer at Modivcare
U.S. healthcare is transforming, driven by rising costs, aging-in-place preferences, and the demand for equitable care. The future lies in complementing traditional facilities with proactive, home-based care powered by scalable digital tools, virtual clinical oversight, and innovative solutions that reduce provider burden and lower costs while ensuring access through transportation where in-person services remain essential. Innovators in Medicare and Medicaid will bridge gaps by delivering high-quality, cost-effective care. As provider networks consolidate and CMS emphasizes care quality, integrating digital tools, clinical oversight, and personalized engagement will be key. Building trust through seamless, patient-centered solutions will accelerate adoption. The vision is clear: accessible, equitable, and sustainable care for all.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time out of their day to submit a prediction to us and thank you to all of you for taking the time to read this article! We could not do this without all of your support. What do you think will happen for Healthcare Workforce in 2025? Let us know on social media. We’d love to hear from all of you!

Be sure to check out all of Healthcare IT Today’s Healthcare Workforce content and our other 2025 Health IT Predictions.

As we wrap up another year and get ready for 2025 to begin, it is once again time for everyone’s favorite annual tradition of Health IT Predictions! We reached out to our incredible Healthcare IT Today Community to get their insights on what will happen in the coming year and boy did they deliver. We in fact got so many responses to our prompt this year, that we have had to narrow them down to just the best and most interesting. Check out the community’s predictions down below and be sure to follow along as we share more 2025 Health IT Predictions!

Check out our community’s Healthcare Workforce predictions:

Michael Armstrong, Chief Technology Officer at Authenticx
Enterprise healthcare organizations will take a lesson from smaller companies. Enterprise healthcare organizations typically don’t have the infrastructure to innovate and rapidly pivot, while smaller companies may be better positioned to innovate with data because they have more organizational flexibility. Large organizations will need internal incentives to prompt innovation and improve efficiency at an enterprise scale.

Mary Russell, Senior Director, Clinical Services at CliniComp
As hospital systems continue to recover from the financial impacts of the pandemic, addressing workforce challenges will be paramount in 2025. Recruitment and retention will be bolstered by strategic partnerships with universities to develop specialized content that meets market needs, creating a robust talent pipeline. Revamping benefits and developing residency programs tailored to rural areas will attract and retain talent where it’s needed most.

EHR optimization will improve clinical workflows, allowing providers to focus more on patient care, thus enhancing job satisfaction. Furthermore, reducing reliance on contract nursing positions will ensure higher quality and consistency of care. By embracing these solutions, healthcare organizations can create a more stable, satisfied, and effective workforce.

Andrea Greco, SVP of Healthcare Safety at CENTEGIX
In 2025, workplace violence will continue to sit at the forefront of healthcare challenges, especially given staffing shortages, increased patient and visitor agitation, and lack of trust in the industry. This must be addressed to preserve high-quality patient care. In 2023, over 80% of nurses experienced workplace violence. When staff members feel better protected and less vulnerable, they can focus more effort on patient outcomes and experience.

This is how workplace safety directly impacts patient care. Investing in safety systems will be imperative in safeguarding staff, while also helping to improve employee support and wellness, retention, and recruitment efforts. However, not all solutions are created equal. The quest for safer environments can introduce new problems, like employee privacy concerns due to Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS). Healthcare facilities must build trust with their staff and have open dialogue around safety measures to ensure all concerns are heard and addressed. Healthcare workers deserve to feel confident and safe in their workplace.

Deb Jones, Sr. Director, Insights Strategy at Tendo
In 2025, quality will solidify its role as the ultimate differentiator in healthcare, shaping not only patient outcomes but also the reputation and success of organizations. High-quality care ensures better health outcomes, reduces avoidable costs, and enhances patient satisfaction outcomes that resonate across the industry. To remain competitive, organizations must prioritize quality as a core metric, embedding it into their strategic frameworks. This involves leveraging data analytics to track performance, adopting evidence-based practices to improve outcomes, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Quality must also extend beyond clinical care to include patient experiences, operational excellence, and accessibility. By focusing on quality as a measurable, actionable goal, healthcare organizations can build stronger relationships with stakeholders and create sustainable advantages in an increasingly competitive market. With patients and payers alike demanding transparency, the quality of care delivered, and the ratings of healthcare organizations will directly influence consumer trust and choice. In 2025, quality isn’t just a benchmark; it’s the standard by which success is defined.

Jen Goldsmith, Co-Founder of Tendo
In 2025, understanding and supporting healthcare quality will become a critical and ubiquitous pursuit. It will be recognized as a collective responsibility shared by many within a healthcare system. From physicians ensuring best-practice care delivery and accurate clinical documentation, to site leaders fostering a culture of accountability, and documentation specialists maintaining accurate records that drive informed decisions, every team member plays a pivotal role in delivering high-quality outcomes. Quality initiatives require alignment and collaboration at all levels, with shared goals and clear metrics guiding efforts.

Whether it’s frontline staff improving patient interactions, administrators optimizing workflows, or data teams leveraging analytics to identify gaps, the commitment to quality must be deeply ingrained in daily operations. By embedding quality into every role and process, organizations can ensure that excellence becomes a systemic value, not just a departmental goal. This collective approach not only elevates patient outcomes but also strengthens organizational performance, making quality everyone’s job and everyone’s achievement.

David J. Sand, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at ZeOmega
Medicare Advantage (MA) will be a hotbed of activity in 2025. The eligible population is growing and expressing a preference for MA over traditional Medicare. While the MA population grows and the source of payment for institutional and individual providers shifts to the government-sponsored space, there are significant headwinds that providers and payers will face. The rate increases provided by the CMS were lower than any of the stakeholders expected or desired. The shift in risk adjustment to v28 will yield downward pressure on risk adjustment factors and payments. Similarly, payers are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve lucrative HEDIS/Quality bonuses. Payers will pay more attention to “Duals” dual-eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and the richer pmpm payments they receive to enroll them.

Karl Ulfers, Co-Founder and CEO at DUOS
There’s understandable concern in healthcare about how AI can inadvertently contribute to biases or limit care. However, I believe there’s a clear opportunity to reverse that narrative by making AI an instrument for increased access and scale. As our country continues to age, we will need to care for larger populations while, at the same time, we are barreling towards a future with fewer people to care for our aging population. This was already predicted to be a problem by the early 2030’s when we will have more people over 65 than under 18 for the first time in our country’s history. This challenge will likely accelerate due to the incoming administration’s immigration policies.

Due to these dynamic uses of AI to automate the navigation and administration of the healthcare system is going to become a necessity to help ensure our aging populations can easily use their benefits and government programs to pay for the services they need to age. Specifically, we see a clear opportunity to leverage large language models (LLM) and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) trained on payers’ benefits documents and State, Federal, and Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits to make it easy for older adults, caregivers, providers, care managers, and payers to navigate and receive the services they need. We believe that these models combined with digital and voice engagement can help free up substantial pools of labor needed to care for the aging population.

Kelly Villella, Segment Leader & Director of Product Management, Med Ed at Wolters Kluwer Health
Technology use accelerates for educating students for high-demand health professions that require advanced degrees. As healthcare shifts from reactive to proactive approaches, the demand for specialized care in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and exercise physiology is projected to grow significantly. The number of jobs in these three professions alone is projected to increase by 12-15% over the next decade. Health professionals will play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle and in treating both chronic and acute conditions globally.

In response to these changing demands, the degree requirements for several areas of the health professions have been raised in recent years, reflecting a need for advanced knowledge and skills. As educational institutions grow these programs to meet demand and evolve to educate the influx of students, they will increasingly integrate technology into their curricula to enhance the learning experience, and to help students better understand complex concepts and practice applying foundational knowledge earlier in the curriculum. We expect educator’s use of technology, from virtual simulation and AI to video libraries and digital courseware to accelerate as it better prepares prospective health professionals to achieve positive patient outcomes and excel in their future careers.

Kelly Dries, Director of Nursing Program Success at Wolters Kluwer Health
In 2025, the use of technology in onboarding new nurse educators will evolve to offer tailored training pathways through simulations, interactive modules, and AI-enhanced learning platforms. The industry is facing a massive influx of new nurse faculty that is rapidly growing to meet the demand of nursing students. Onboarding both educators and students with plug-and-play technology will be key for finding efficiencies and continuing to graduate nursing students who are ready for real-world practice.

John Bou, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Modio Health
For 2025, I see the start of a big shift towards the concept of ‘continuous credentialing’ of healthcare providers, driven by machine learning, automation, and AI. Today, credentialing remains a critical but tedious process, often taking weeks or even months to complete. There are very few mandatory tasks in healthcare that have had so little traction in terms of innovation to improve the process. Provider credentialing is still a significant pain point for healthcare organizations eager to bring providers on board safely, swiftly, and efficiently.

With data-sharing initiatives and AI advancements, I see credentialing evolving towards a process that eliminates unnecessary delays and can happen in real time. Getting to that future requires a few critical steps, like creating centralized, standardized credentialing data and achieving true interoperability across credentialing systems. Progress is already underway, but as we standardize data and enable systems to talk to each other, the vision of real-time credentialing can become a reality. With these changes, we’re paving the way for a healthcare environment where licensing and credentialing may one day be as fast as a few clicks.

Laura Cave, Chief Brand Officer at Paytient
In 2025, we expect to see enhancements in the patient experience and revenue cycle management as health plans integrate financial solutions directly into their offerings. Health systems, payers, and employers are increasingly offering flexible payment options alongside health insurance to reduce financial barriers that often deter patients from seeking care. This matters for providers because unfunded care poses a risk to both patient well-being and the revenue cycle, as patients unsure if they’ll be able to pay are more likely to avoid necessary treatment.

Traditional solutions like interest-bearing patient loans and underfunded HSAs have led to patients deferring or struggling to pay for care, impacting health systems and patient outcomes. A 2024 study revealed that 40% of workplace-insured Americans defer care due to cost concerns, which can worsen health outcomes over time. To address these challenges, more payers are turning to options like the Health Payment Account (HPA), bundled alongside health plans to offer patients flexible payment pathways. This kind of support builds confidence among patients, encouraging them to seek care with the assurance they can manage their medical expenses.

Health systems benefit from improved patient experience, improved adherence to treatment plans, and stronger retention. As high deductibles remain standard and price transparency expands, now is the time for healthcare leaders to consider how they can more equitably empower employees and health plan members with solutions that strengthen both financial security and patient loyalty.

Dr. Dan Stevens, Healthcare and Life Sciences Solutions Architect at Lenovo
In 2025, the healthcare industry will continue to be tasked with addressing the rising costs of care, managing the health of the aging population, and improving the quality of and access to care. AI can play a significant role in overcoming all of these challenges by utilizing and analyzing the vast amounts of data our industry has been accumulating from the digital technology investments made in past decades. AI’s ability to quickly deliver actionable insights can transform clinical care by providing diagnostic suggestions, guiding image analysis, alerting the risk of an acute health episode, or predicting resource utilization. Additionally, it could even be leveraged to help first responders make life-saving treatment decisions in emergency scenarios, such as natural disasters, where access to medical resources and personnel may not be available.

Carrie Nelson, MD, Chief Medical Officer at KeyCare
Hospitals and health systems continue to endure rising costs and difficulty attracting front-line clinical workers, making it imperative that they expand virtual care to account for these shortfalls. By adding capacity with virtual care partners, health systems can widen their digital front doors with a national network of virtual physicians that augments their own care teams and broadens patient access.

L. Heath Sampson, President and Chief Executive Officer at Modivcare
U.S. healthcare is transforming, driven by rising costs, aging-in-place preferences, and the demand for equitable care. The future lies in complementing traditional facilities with proactive, home-based care powered by scalable digital tools, virtual clinical oversight, and innovative solutions that reduce provider burden and lower costs while ensuring access through transportation where in-person services remain essential. Innovators in Medicare and Medicaid will bridge gaps by delivering high-quality, cost-effective care. As provider networks consolidate and CMS emphasizes care quality, integrating digital tools, clinical oversight, and personalized engagement will be key. Building trust through seamless, patient-centered solutions will accelerate adoption. The vision is clear: accessible, equitable, and sustainable care for all.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time out of their day to submit a prediction to us and thank you to all of you for taking the time to read this article! We could not do this without all of your support. What do you think will happen for Healthcare Workforce in 2025? Let us know on social media. We’d love to hear from all of you!

Be sure to check out all of Healthcare IT Today’s Healthcare Workforce content and our other 2025 Health IT Predictions.