hfm: August 2012

Cover Story

Accountable care challenges hospitals to engage physicians in efforts to reduce costs and improve quality. If employing physicians is not practical, hospitals should consider alternative strategies.

By John Fink, Darin Libby

Features

Navigating the Road Ahead: Lessons from a Pioneer ACO

One organization's long experience as an accountable care organization shows that accountable care can be successful, not only in improving population health, but also financially.

By Michael James

5 Pillars of Clinical Integration

A healthcare organization's ability to succeed in a world of accountable care will depend on the extent to which it has developed an effective clinical integration program.

By Daniel Grauman, Carole Graham, Molly Martha Johnson

After the Supreme Court Decision: What's Next for Reform?

The U.S. Supreme Court decision was supposed to bring some clarity on healthcare reform. Unfortunately, the ruling with respect to Medicaid has only muddied the waters for providers in some states.

By Chad Mulvaney

Building Data-Driven Trust with Physicians

Hospital finance executives should focus on transparency, along with data, to gain physicians' trust and build productive discussions with physicians toward meaningful change.

By Rick Carter

Back to the Basics: 5 Ways to Pick Low-Hanging Fruit

Hospital finance leaders should perform a few analyses to reduce their labor and supply chain expenses.

By Steven Berger

Moving from CFO to COO

Making the move to COO or to a new leadership position for health systems-chief administrative officer-is a career step that is becoming increasingly attractive to many healthcare CFOs.

By Jeni Williams

Focusing on White Space to Improve Patient Throughput

An Ohio hospital improved care delivery processes by creating better coordination between departments and focusing on patient outcome milestones.

By Samantha Platzke, Imran Andrabi

Focus Areas

Payment

An Improved Accrual: Reducing Medical Malpractice Year-End Adjustments

Healthcare entities need to determine an appropriate accrual from their medical malpractice medical malpractice year-end adjustments to ensure adequate reserves in year-end financial statements.

By Richard Frese

Technology

Leveraging EHR Investments Through Medical Device Connectivity

Integrating medical devices with an electronic health record can boost clinician efficiency by reducing clinicians' overall documentation activities.

By Peter Witonsky

Columns

From the Chair

Tackling the Cost Challenge

Healthcare leaders can help solve the nation's healthcare cost problem if they tackle it incrementally.

By Ralph Lawson, FHFMA, CPA

From the President

Go for the Gold

The time is right to experiment with payment models that reward better coordination of care and mend the nation's fragmented care delivery system.

By Joseph Fifer, FHFMA, CPA

From the Editor

The Basis of Our Conclusions

Finance leaders will have more success getting stakeholders to accept a decision if they discuss assumptions associated with data on which the decision is based and the rationale for use of the data

By Robert Fromberg, Editor-in-Chief

Business Intelligence

Reducing Healthcare Costs Through Better Chronic Disease Management

There is compelling evidence that improving the management of chronic diseases holds huge potential for improving quality of care and lowering costs.

By Dean Coddington, Keith Moore

Healthcare Value

The Value Proposition: 4 Lessons from Failing Quality Programs

Four lessons from unsuccessful quality programs illustrate pitfalls hospitals should avoid.

By John Byrnes

Strategy Challenge

Which Initiatives Should a Health System Pursue in a Highly Competitive Market?

A health system contemplates strategic options in a metropolitan area that has been experiencing consolidation in healthcare delivery.