Given the millions of people who have left their jobs as part of the Great Resignation or have found themselves unemployed for other reasons, your health system’s ability to improve its eligibility and enrollment processes in your revenue cycle is essential.

The Great Resignation continues its historic march toward outpacing all previously reported years of quits data as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which began reporting the number of U.S. workers who quit their jobs in December 2000.

In 2021, 47.8 million workers quit their jobs—an average of nearly 4 million each month—giving 2021 the distinction of the highest average on record, topping the 2019 average of 3.5 million.¹

Exacerbating the issue, on the heels of the Great Resignation we find that job growth is slowing, vacancies are down, cuts are being made, hiring plans are put on hold, and unemployment claims are rising. First-time filings for unemployment benefits rose by 7,000 in mid-July and are up 51 percent from mid-March, Labor Department data shows.²

Recently released data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey were used to estimate health insurance coverage. The survey found that in 2020, 31.6 million (9.7%) people of all ages were uninsured at the time of the interview. This includes 31.2 million (11.5%) people under age 65. Among children, 3.7 million (5.0%) were uninsured, and among working-age adults (aged 18–64), 27.5 million (13.9%) were uninsured. Among people under age 65, 64.3% were covered by private health insurance, including 56.6% with employment-based coverage and 6.7% with directly purchased coverage. Moreover, 4.0% were covered by exchange-based coverage, a type of directly purchased coverage.³

The potential impact on your net revenue is clear: shifts in payer mix, increases in bad debt and charity from caring for more people without health insurance. That is, unless you do something about it – specifically invest in your eligibility and financial counseling programs.

Many U.S. adults have trouble affording health care costs. While lower income and uninsured adults are the most likely to report this, those with health insurance and those with higher incomes are not immune to the high cost of medical care. About half of U.S. adults say that it is very or somewhat difficult for them to afford their health care costs (47%). Among those under age 65, uninsured adults are much more likely to say affording health care costs is difficult (85%) compared to those with health insurance coverage (47%). Additionally, at least six in ten Black adults (60%) and Hispanic adults (65%) report difficulty affording health care costs compared to about four in ten White adults (39%). Adults in households with annual incomes under $40,000 are more than three times as likely as adults in households with incomes over $90,000 to say it is difficult to afford their health care costs (69% v. 21%).⁴

National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted a survey on why adults (aged 18-64) did not have health care coverage.