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Nikhil R. Sahni

Leader of Center for US Healthcare Improvement, PartnerBoston

Serves healthcare clients with productivity challenges across the value chain and works to reshape the care-delivery ecosystem

Nikhil is a partner in our Boston office, serving organizations across the healthcare spectrum—including providers, payers, distributers, and manufacturers—on corporate strategy, business-unit strategy, inorganic growth, and operational efficiency. He is also a leader in McKinsey’s Center for US Healthcare Improvement where he works to reshape the healthcare delivery ecosystem to reduce productivity inefficiencies, improve patient outcomes and manage overall spending.

Nikhil was the lead author on “The Productivity Imperative in US Healthcare Delivery, Administrative simplification: How to save a quarter-trillion dollars in US healthcare,” and “Artificial Intelligence in US Health Care Delivery”, among other contributions to the productivity series. He is also a fellow with Professor David Cutler at the Harvard University Department of Economics.

Examples of his recent client work include the following:

  • helping identify, acquire, and integrate growth with a large healthcare company
  • collaborating with a new business entering a specific disease area to define the strategic vision and model economic flows
  • helping a large healthcare company design and implement new strategic pricing to meet shifting market dynamics
  • aiding a company preparing for an IPO to develop and execute a new go-to-market strategy

He serves on the board of Health Care Without Harm, a global not-for-profit working at the intersection of health and sustainability, and on the Corporation for the Belmont Hill School.

Published work

Government productivity: Practical methods to deliver more with less,” McKinsey & Company, January 2024

US government productivity: The roles government plays,” McKinsey & Company, October 2023

Active steps to reduce administrative spending associated with financial transactions in US healthcare,” Health Affairs Scholar, November 2023

US Government productivity: A more than $2,000 per resident opportunity,” McKinsey & Company, September 2023

Artificial Intelligence in U.S. Health Care Delivery,” New England Journal of Medicine(N Engl J Med), July 2023

Meeting changing consumer needs: The US retail pharmacy of the future,” McKinsey & Company, March 2023

The Potential Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Healthcare Spending,” National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2023

How to save a quarter-trillion dollars in healthcare spending every year,”Washington Post, November 2021

Administrative simplification: How to save a quarter-trillion dollars in US healthcare,” McKinsey & Company, October 2021

Administrative Simplification and the Potential for Saving a Quarter-Trillion Dollars in Health Care,”JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, October 2021

The math of ACOs,” McKinsey & Company, August 2020

Adapting healthcare to COVID-19: An interview with the CEO of Boston Medical Center,” McKinsey & Company, May 2020

The productivity imperative for healthcare delivery in the United States,” McKinsey & Company, February 2019

The IT transformation health care needs,”Harvard Business Review, November–December 2017

Surgeon specialization and operative mortality in United States: retrospective analysis,”BMJ, 2016

How the U.S. can reduce waste in health care spending by $1 trillion,”Harvard Business Review, October 2015

The future of medicine—Where investors are putting their money,”Forbes, May 2015

Unleashing breakthrough innovation in government,”Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2013

If slow rate of health care spending growth persists, projections may be off by $770 billion,”Health Affairs, May 2013

Rethinking health care labor,”(N Engl J Med), 2011

Hospitals' race to employ physicians—The logic behind a money-losing proposition,”N Engl J Med, 2011

Physicians versus hospitals as leaders of accountable care organizations,”N Engl J Med, 2010

Past experience

Harvard University
Fellow

Kyruus
Senior director

Health Policy Commission
Policy director

Harvard Business School
Fellow

Boston Red Sox
Special assistant to the president

Education

Harvard University
MBA
MPA/ID, US healthcare

University of Pennsylvania
BSE, finance
BAS, biomedical engineering
BA, South Asia studies