Health Care Jobs Up– Again
Filed under: BLS, Health Care Employment, Health Law
Photo by bjmccray via Flickr
“Health Care Jobs Up,” a tried and true headline that has been capable of use every month in the last decade, and one I’ve used a time or two in one form or another here at HRW. Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest employment report showed a slowdown in private sector hiring, ambulatory care settings added 8,700 jobs while health care as a whole added 13,100 jobs.
In an article entitled “The Health Care Economy: Where the Jobs Are,” Merril Goozner over at the Fiscal Times writes:
The health care industry is bulletproof when it comes to increasing spending or creating jobs. Growth rates that are often double the rest of the economy have allowed the nation’s hospitals and physician offices to add nearly 1.5 million jobs over the past decade, a period when other private sector employers were shedding 2.8 million jobs, largely the result of the banking and financial crisis. In fact, there hasn’t been a single month in the past decade when health care providers as a group didn’t increase employment opportunities for job-hungry Americans.
The employment gains experienced in the health care sector are prodigious, in January of 2009 The Wall Street Journal reported that in an otherwise bleak economy
“Health care saw a net gain of 419,000 jobs in 2008 and its growth outlook continues to be strong through 2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
And for health law practitioners? What I wrote back in March of this year seems no less true now:
What might one expect to be the effect of this relatively sanguine state of affairs for Health Care employment on Health Law practitioners?
In the well written and informative words of Professor Jennifer Bard, J.D., M.P.H (I highly recommend the article, “I’m Interested in Health Law- Now Where Can I Get a Job?” to anyone who may be considering a career in Health Law),
Health care is a trillion-dollar industry[1]that has grown exponentially over the past 10 years with very little sign of slowing. The demand for legal services has tracked the growth of the industry,[2] and, as a result, attorneys calling themselves “health lawyers” have grown from a small core of specialists to a large and diverse group of individuals who are as likely to specialize in bond issuance and tax planning as in torts or food and drug law. Moreover, the increasing regulation of health care has created substantial need for lawyers specializing in compliance with a vast array of federal, state and local regulations. Where 15 years ago most health law was done by small, specialized law firms, today many of the nation’s biggest law firms have thriving health law practices.
Significantly, although officially published in the Winter of 2009 (14 New York State Bar Association Health Law Journal 73 (2009)), Professor Bard first published those words to SSRN in February of 2008-prior to the onset of the Obama Administration and the rising priority of Health Care Reform and regulatory enforcement. Because of these rising priorities, her words are no less true than when they were written, and have arguably gained an even greater currency since.
In an article this month in The American Lawyer, “Drug Supplement. New federal regs demand more health care lawyers,” Rachel Breitman points out the following:
Ever since President Barack Obama gave health care reform a prime spot on his agenda, hospital, pharmaceutical, medical device, and insurance interest groups have been digging in, with the expectation of a battle to come-the kind that requires lawyers.
Changes have already begun. New federal regulations like a genetic discrimination shield law and new digital privacy security standards have been enacted. The U.S. Department of Justice and Health and Human Services launched a healthcare task force in May. “There’s going to be more oversight about how companies spend government grant funds for research and clinical trials,” says Frederick Robinson, the head of Fullbright & Jaworski’s Washington, D.C., health law practice, which advises clients like Zimmer, Inc., and Walgreen Company. “Also, as health care providers apply for stimulus funds, there will be new compliance challenges to get the money.”
As a result, law firms have a new appetite for health care lawyers.
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Great article and most importantly I think its a great boost of morale for those who are in the medical and health care industry. I just wanted to share with your readers another resource for them to check out if they are searching for medical and health care jobs. The site is http://www.allmedicalgigs.com. There are hundreds of medical and health care jobs and new ones are added daily. Good luck with everything.