Price Transparency: The Time Is Now
It is past time for healthcare leaders to start providing greater price transparency for consumers, regardless of the challenges and obstacles to doing so, writes HFMA President and CEO Joseph J. Fifer.
Beyond the Mandate: Better Strategies for Price Transparency
Some healthcare organizations have taken the spirit of new price transparency regulations a step further by striving to inform patients in advance about their true out-of-pocket costs for care.
Telehealth Use Among Medicare Patients Limited but Growing
Growth in telehealth use among Medicare beneficiaries is occurring in patients 85 years and older and living in rural areas.
National Hospital Survey Shares Insight into CMS’s Price Transparency Requirement
Hospitals expressed uncertainty about the usefulness of information supplied in response to CMS’s IPPS transparency requirements, but also recognize that the rule amplifies healthcare industry efforts to provide meaningful price estimates for healthcare services.
Aligning Executive Compensation to Strategic Priorities
As hospital boards and executives embark on transformational strategies like clinical integration and population health management, finance leaders are key in helping to set performance targets that are appropriate relative to industry-wide statistics as well as past performance.
Healthcare Predictions Focus on Innovative Corporate Structures and Alternative Financing
An alternative corporate structure called a “benefit corporation” is at the center of one of 10 predictions issued by BDO. Two others one related to telemedicine and the other related to sources of alternative capital pertain to hospital finance.
An ‘Outside View’ Helps Achieve Return on Analytics
An “outside view” can counter biases and organizational pressures that can skew internal decision-making processes. It also provides a framework for target setting that helps define realistic expected returns.
No-Divert Policy, Strategic Growth Help Erlanger Increase Revenue by $300 Million
A strategic plan that focused on growth and expanding specialty services helped Erlanger Health System improve its balance sheet while maintaining high-quality performance. A pay-for-performance program also increased nurse productivity.
Annual Hospital Costs for Opioid Overdose Patients Approaches $2 Billion
The average cost for an overdose patient who was treated and released totaled $504, but the average cost rose to $11,731 for those that were treated and admitted to a hospital.
Evaluating Cost-of-Care Progress
Although more time and evidence are needed to prove the efficacy of population-based VBP models, there are other models that may be more appropriate for different populations.