How the CEO of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. aims to upend the PBM model
W hen Alexander Oshmyansky, MD, PhD, pitched the idea of a not-for-profit drug company that would undercut drugmakers’ excessively priced pharmaceuticals, he was soundly rejected by potential backers, attracting no outside money. But on the advice to try to create a for-profit company instead, and with the later backing of Mark Cuban, things started to happen.…
Bank failures highlight importance of measuring counterparty risk
The recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank have focused attention on an often-overlooked issue: bank counterparty risk. From a treasurer’s perspective, banks are much more than account-holding institutions. They provide an array of critical payment and collection services, and the impact of losing access to these services cannot be overstated. The Federal…
Norton Healthcare and other health systems are making big moves to reduce health inequity
When Louisville police officers killed Breonna Taylor, a young Black woman not suspected of any crime, in her home in March 2020, the president and CEO of Norton Healthcare took it personally. “As an employer of 18,000 people and a very prominent organization in our community, we needed to be the ones to step up…
Cost Effectiveness of Health Report, November 2022
Sponsored by Kaufman Hall This issue of HFMA’s Cost Effectiveness of Health Report, sponsored by Kaufman, Hall & Associates, LLC, includes insight into what’s driving U.S. health systems’ increasing adoption of programs for delivering acute hospital car in patients’ homes, with new guidance for organizations considering such a strategy. Martin Bluth provides a physician’s perspective on what’s needed…
Wendy Fielding: Healthcare CFOs can benefit from having a financial analyst’s perspective
Wendy Fielding, MBA, a 30-year member of HFMA, and CFO and system vice president of finance at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Lebanon, New Hampshire, values the lessons she learned from her early experience as a financial analyst in healthcare. And she applies those lessons learned as she helps her organization today realize its commitment to value-based care and improving access to care for its patients.
How health systems can support underserved patients through in-home care
Finding a way to deliver high-touch care to vulnerable and underserved patients using the patient’s home as the primary point of care has become a strategic priority for providers. The strategic shift to a focus on in-home care for these populations stems from increasing pressure on health systems to lower the cost of care for populations they serve while solving for the challenges presented by social determinants of health.
David W. Johnson: Pizza, productivity and the impact of inflation on healthcare finance
The skyrocketing inflation of healthcare costs over the past decades has considerably reduced the value of healthcare in our country, and waste is largely at the root of the problem. A focus on eliminating healthcare waste is logically needed to foster a better, more productive life for all Americans,
New IDS merger aims to improve value and access for its communities
A case study of a merger of two health systems in the Pacific Northwest exemplifies a shift in focus among health system mergers toward creating transformative partnerships aimed at improving value and overall cost effectiveness. The authors recount steps that the new merged integrated delivery system (IDS) has taken to realize the merger’s primary goals.
Healthcare organizations need a better way to measure ROI of health equity investments
Healthcare organizations’ investments in health equity can deliver a meaningful ROI, but identifying the financial benefits of such investments requires an expanded framework for analysis beyond criteria used in a standard ROI analysis.
How healthy food incentives can help solve our nation’s problem with unhealthy eating
To help patients dealing with a lack of access to healthy foods, providers should consider partnering with an organization that can help them provide these patients with the means for purchasing healthy food using technology such as swipe cards or mobile e-vouchers, The ability to track such purchases can allow a provider to more effectively work with these patients to address dietary issues, says Sam Jonas of Snap2Save, a developer of this approach.