Cover Story
The Cost of Quality: How VBP Scores Correlate with Hospital Costs
One study suggests that success under the Medicare value-based purchasing program may correlate with higher expenditures on routine services that impact patient satisfaction.
By William Shoemaker
Features
New Partnership Opportunities for Payers and Providers
Hospital finance leaders should be prepared to act quickly and decisively when considering new partnerships with insurers and physicians.
By Jim Berarducci, Rob Langheim, Anne Vars
Implementing Clinical and Financial Collaboration Between Payers and Providers
These case studies highlight some successes and challenges associated with collaboration initiatives between payers and providers.
By Michael Nugent
Changing the Game: What CFOs Should Know About Physician Compensation
Learn three critical questions healthcare CFOs and other leaders should ask when developing a physician compensation plan.
By James Otto
Pharmacy Revenue Cycle Audits can Bring Unexpected Returns
Hospitals should be aware of the extent that seemingly small errors in pharmacy revenue cycle processes can cause them to lose substantial dollars from their bottom lines.
By Douglass Miller, Kristin Fox-Smith
People and Change Management in an Uncertain Environment
Business transformation requires focusing not only on tools, technology, and techniques, but also on involving the entire workforce.
By Edward Giniat, Brad Benton, Eric Biegansky, Robert Grossman
Commerically Reasonable - Whose Responsibility is It?
Hospital finance executives can play an important role in assessing whether proposed transactions between their organizations and physicians meet regulatory standards for being commercially reasonable.
By Jen Johnson
Is Your Clinical Documentation Improvement Program Compliant?
Failing to follow documentation guidelines could pose legal headaches for hospitals. Learn four strategies for improving the accuracy of documentation while remaining compliant.
By Kenji Asakura, Erik Ordal
Creating a Stand-Alone Fundraising Foundation
Forming stand-alone foundations can be a key fundraising strategy for hospitals.
By Walter Dillingham, Leigh Weiss, John Lawson
Focus Areas
Payment
The Inexorable March Toward Accountable Care
The long and winding road toward accountable care has not been without bumps, but accountable care organizations constitute a bona fide, inexorable trend that should pick up steam in the years ahead.
By Ken Perez
Technology
Computer-Assisted Coding and Clinical Documentation: First Things First
Learn why some organizations are considering computer-assisted coding and documentation in the move toward ICD-10—and best practices for implementing these systems.
By Melinda Tully, Angela Carmichael
Columns
From the Chair
Implementing Core Strategies to Improve Efficiencies
Reducing costs requires careful anaysis and hard decisions.
By Ralph Lawson, FHFMA, CPA
From the President
Making the First Move
Providers and payers need to step outside familiar roles to create healthcare value.
By Joseph Fifer, FHFMA, CPA
From the Editor
Can We Talk?
Improved partnerships between providers and payers can help consumers.
By Robert Fromberg, Editor-in-Chief
Eye on Washington
Standards, Please
Use of the National Quality Strategy (NQS) offers payers and providers a much-needed opportunity to simplify quality measurement.
By Chad Mulvany
Business Intelligence
How Business Intelligence Can Improve Value
Case studies of three healthcare organizations reinforce the premise that business intelligence is critical to demonstrating improved value.
By Keith Moore, Katie Eyestone, Dean Coddington
Healthcare Value
Driving Value: Solving the Issue of Data Overload with an Executive Dashboard
A quality and safety dashboard provides a meaningful summary of data to the board of directors and hospital leadership.
By John Byrnes
Web Extra: The executive quality dashboard is a straightforward tool that shows executives and board members a healthcare organization’s composite measures and targets.
Strategy Challenge
Is Independence the Right Strategy?
A freestanding community hospital in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area considers the relative merits of remaining independent in a market that is in the midst of consolidation frenzy.
By Alan Zuckerman
5 Ways To...
5 Ways to Prevent Medicaton Errors
Karen P. Zimmer, MD, MPH, FAAP, medical director for ECRI’s patient safety organization, offers strategies for adopting a system-based approach to preventing errors.
By Karen Wagner
Data Trends
Considering the Risks and Rewards of Payment Reform
Health system leaders should understand the total costs of care in their communities, and how those costs across the continuum compare with total costs in similar communities.
Etcetera
Member Spotlight: Racing in Paradise
Executive Interview
Charles Weis: Negotiating a Unique Partnership to Improve Care
Publication Date: Monday, October 01, 2012