Key financial challenges for hospitals over the next five years include aligning incentives with physicians, accelerating regulatory requirements, inadequate Medicare payment, and increasing cost of capital, according to HMFA’s recently released Healthcare Finance Outlook: 2008-2013. The report, based on a survey of and interviews with industry experts, forecasts industry trends related to volume, cost, price/payment, and capital, as well as identifying indicators of change and strategies to succeed in the face of those trends.
Other key trends identified include the shift to nonhospital treatment, financial stress on safety net hospitals, increased supply and pharmaceutical spend, state mandates for uninsured coverage, enhanced health plan bargaining power, and threats to not-for-profit status. Among the action steps proposed are:
- Have a strategy to engage physicians and emphasize outpatient care.
- Work closely with clinical and operational leaders to measure and improve quality, thereby reducing cost and mitigating effects of inadequate payment.
- Increase organizational size to increase bargaining power.
- Adopt a disciplined approach to capital planning.
“It's daunting to anticipate the future,” said Richard L. Clarke, DHA, FHFMA, president and CEO of HFMA. “Yet maintaining future-focused perspective is vital to ensure resources are available to fulfill the critical mission of health care for the long term.” Access the Outlook.
