"Volumes in hospital land have been coming down," Mizuho's Sheryl Skolnick said on CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Monday.
And even with the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, remaining intact, hospital stocks such as Tenet Healthcare and its peers could start to drop, she said.
However, hospital stocks are certainly breathing a sigh of relief Monday, Skolnick added. There's no doubt about that.
Shares of mental health treatment facilities' operator Acadia Healthcare, hospital owner Tenet Healthcare and Community Health Systems were all trading in green territory Monday morning, following news that the GOP's proposal to repeal and replace America's current health-care bill fell through. HCA Holdings, one of the nation's largest hospital operators, also reached a new multiyear high on Monday.
These stocks are rallying because the industry was uncertain it would face more costs as a result of the Republicans' health-care proposal becoming law — a move that could have increased the number of Americans without insurance.
"It's back to business as usual, but there are still some issues out there that are [important] to pay attention to," analyst Skolnick told CNBC. Particularly, investors need to monitor hospitals' patient margins, she said, using Tenet as an example.
"We're concerned about that structure," she said, referring to Tenet's latest acquisitions of companies such as United Surgical Partners, which are moving the company away from its bread and butter.
Because of innovation, physicians are now making decisions based on data, analytics and new technology, in a matter of minutes, Skolnick said. "More often than not, it's not the hospital" that's doing all the work anymore. Many people are beginning to think: "Who needs the hospital, anyway?"
This innovation-based shift is resulting in slowing growth rates through the front doors of many hospitals, and even fewer emergency rooms visits, Skolnick told CNBC.
"That could spell a problem for the part of [hospital's] business, where you've deployed the most capital, and that's the outpatient hospital bed."