Healthcare finance is one of the most dynamic and multifaceted environments in any industry, which is exactly what makes it so rewarding when the planning process works well. Across the United States, total compensation and related expenses now account for 56% of total hospital costs according to the American Hospital Association, and hospitals spent more than $1 trillion on workforce in 2025 alone. When a single cost category carries that much weight, the ability to plan around it with precision becomes an extraordinary strategic advantage.
While much of the industry data centers on hospitals and health systems, the planning challenges these numbers represent extend across the full healthcare spectrum. Physician groups, ambulatory surgery centers, behavioral health organizations, home health and hospice providers, long-term care facilities, dental and veterinary networks, healthcare staffing firms, and healthcare-adjacent organizations all face the same fundamental need: the ability to plan dynamically across finance, workforce, and operations. Workday Adaptive Planning serves that entire landscape.
A growing number of healthcare organizations are discovering that planning can be a true competitive advantage. Connected planning, where Finance, HR, and Operations work from a unified model with shared assumptions and real-time visibility, is transforming the way healthcare leaders make decisions and positioning forward-thinking organizations for long-term success.
The Case for Smarter Planning Has Never Been Stronger
Consider the scale of the opportunity. In 2025, total U.S. hospital expenses grew 7.5%, more than twice the rate of growth in hospital prices over the same period. Workforce costs rose 5.6%, and drug expenses climbed 13.6%. At the same time, the AHA and Vizient found that hospital case-mix index, a measure of patient acuity, increased roughly 5% between 2019 and 2024. Healthcare organizations are delivering more care to patients who are more medically complex, and the inputs required to do so are all moving simultaneously.
For organizations still relying on a once-a-year budget to navigate this environment, the math simply does not keep up. But for those that have invested in connected, continuous planning, these dynamics become manageable and even predictable.
From Annual Ritual to Continuous Insight
The annual budget has long served as the financial backbone of healthcare organizations, and it has done important work. The exciting part is what becomes possible when you build on that foundation with rolling forecasts. Rather than working from a single point-in-time view, rolling forecasts allow healthcare leaders to continuously recalibrate based on what is actually happening across the business.
This matters especially when labor costs move as fast as they do in healthcare. According to AHA analysis of Lightcast data, advertised salaries for registered nurses have grown 26.6% faster than the rate of inflation over the past four years. For multi-site health systems managing hundreds or thousands of clinical roles across geographies, a static annual plan cannot account for that kind of movement. The same is true for a behavioral health network scaling across new markets or a physician group navigating shifting payer contracts. Rolling forecasts give planning teams the ability to stay current, stay relevant, and stay ahead.
Workday Adaptive Planning gives healthcare organizations the framework to make this shift without adding complexity or headcount to the FP&A team.
Why Connected Planning Matters More in Healthcare Than Almost Anywhere Else
Healthcare is uniquely cross-functional in ways that create tremendous potential when the right systems are in place. A workforce decision in one department influences financial performance, patient care capacity, and operational throughput. In the HFMA CFO Pain Points survey, 96% of U.S. health system CFOs identified higher labor costs as the top driver of margin pressure. That is not a number Finance can solve alone. It requires alignment across Finance, HR, and Operations.
Connected planning creates a single planning environment where all three functions operate from shared data and shared logic. When the workforce plan updates, the financial forecast reflects it automatically. When Operations adjusts capacity assumptions, Finance sees the margin impact in real time. This holds true whether you are running a 500-bed hospital, a network of outpatient clinics, or a multi-state home health operation.
For CFOs and VPs of Finance at healthcare organizations, this kind of alignment is transformative. A recent Sage and HFMA survey found that nearly 90% of healthcare finance leaders say data accuracy is the biggest challenge in meeting the needs of internal stakeholders. Connected planning addresses this directly by ensuring every function is working from the same set of trusted numbers.
Rolling Forecasts: Built for the Way Healthcare Actually Works
Healthcare operates with a rhythm all its own. Patient volumes follow seasonal patterns, payer mix evolves as contracts are renegotiated, and labor markets shift regionally. Kaufman Hall data from over 1,300 U.S. hospitals showed that the median year-to-date operating margin fell to negative 0.6% in January 2026, down from 1.3% at the end of December 2025. That kind of month-to-month volatility is exactly why a planning process that matches healthcare’s rhythm gives leadership a powerful advantage.
Rolling forecasts in Workday Adaptive Planning allow healthcare organizations to maintain a continuous forward view, typically 12 to 18 months out, that updates as new data comes in. Finance leaders always have a current, trustworthy forecast within reach.
Even more exciting is what this unlocks for scenario planning. What happens if you open a new unit six months early? What does it look like if contract rates shift by three percent? What is the financial impact of accelerating a hiring plan for nursing staff across multiple facilities? These are the kinds of questions healthcare leaders can answer quickly and confidently when rolling forecasts are in place.
Healthcare EPM: From Strong Foundations to Strategic Foresight
Enterprise performance management in healthcare has built a solid foundation of financial reporting and variance analysis over the years. The next generation of healthcare EPM builds on that foundation by adding a forward-looking dimension that empowers leadership to shape outcomes, not just measure them.
With Workday Adaptive Planning, healthcare organizations can build driver-based models that connect operational metrics like patient days, procedures, and FTEs directly to financial outcomes. In a Deloitte survey of healthcare CFOs, nearly 60% said they plan to increase capital expenditures on data and interoperability tools, a clear signal that the industry recognizes the value of connecting planning systems to operational reality. Leadership moves from reviewing results to actively steering performance across the next month, next quarter, and next year.
The organizations embracing this evolution are seeing meaningful improvements in forecast accuracy, faster budget cycles, and a level of cross-functional alignment that opens up entirely new ways of working together.
The Opportunity Is Right Now
While the statistics in this article reflect the U.S. hospital landscape, the planning challenges they represent are universal. Healthcare organizations around the world, across every subvertical, are navigating rising labor costs, shifting patient volumes, and the need for cross-functional alignment. Whether you lead finance at a large health system, a specialty practice group, a long-term care organization, or a healthcare services company, the value of connected planning applies.
The organizations that invest in modern planning capabilities today are building a foundation that will serve them for years to come. With labor making up 60% of all U.S. hospital spending and expenses continuing to grow faster than reimbursement, the organizations that can plan dynamically across Finance, HR, and Operations will be the ones best positioned to thrive, regardless of geography or care setting.
Whether you are evaluating Workday Adaptive Planning for the first time or looking to expand what your existing platform can do, the path to connected planning is clear and well within reach.
See It in Action
We are hosting a live webinar where Workday and PlanSimpli experts walk through exactly what connected planning looks like in healthcare settings, including a real customer story from an organization that made the transition. If you are a Finance, HR, or Operations leader ready to see what is possible, this is the session for you.
✓ On-demand recording included
✓ Live Q&A with Workday and PlanSimpli experts
