Financial Sustainability

Healthcare News of Note: Providers in these 10 states may struggle the most to collect claims from payers 

Over the past few weeks, I have found these industry news stories that should be of interest to healthcare finance professionals. 1. The top and bottom states for paying provider claims are detailed in new report “A connection exists between where a provider operates and how fast and accurately claims are paid,” according to a…

Deborah Filipek September 22, 2023

The 5 provider strategies to improve profit margins

Improving financial performance and operating margins has become one of the most pressing concerns for health system CEOs. To meet future margin targets, leaders will have to bring a new level of focus, resources and structure to achieve deeper cost reductions on a recurring basis. At the same time, this is critical to ensuring that…

HFMA September 13, 2023

How to staff smarter and reduce reliance on expensive travel contracts

To bridge the healthcare staffing gap and tackle workforce issues such as burnout, spikes in labor costs, and rising retirements among nurses, hospitals and healthcare facilities need a technology-driven approach that empowers staffing managers with the control needed to address fluctuating patient volume without understaffing or overspending on labor. This How-To guide highlights the challenges,…

HFMA August 3, 2023

5 things to know about Medicare’s FY24 final rule for inpatient payments as hospitals foresee adverse impacts

The FY24 final rule for Medicare inpatient payments didn’t bring hospitals the type of rate update they sought, and for some organizations a bigger concern is changes to uncompensated care (UC) payments and disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments. Here are five big points about the regulations, which take effect Oct. 1 and also cover Medicare…

Nick Hut August 2, 2023

The latest on hospital finances: Signs of improvement, but margins remain tight

Industry-level hospital financial insights reflect the mixed results of a recovery that’s in progress but is expected to be a long slog. In a 2023 midyear report (login required), Moody’s Investors Service noted that margins are below 3% for a third of the company’s rated hospitals. Before the pandemic, only about 6% had margins in…

Nick Hut July 27, 2023

A projected Medicare physician payment decrease spurs more calls to reform the system

Physician advocacy groups vehemently expressed concern about the financial consequences of CMS’s proposed rule for Medicare physician payments in 2024, intensifying a push to modify the payment system. At a time of elevated expenses in healthcare, total payments would be reduced by a projected 1.25% relative to 2023. That would follow a 2% decrease from…

Nick Hut July 24, 2023

Annual Conference: Healthcare entrepreneur Alex Oshmyansky describes his efforts to disrupt drug pricing

Arguably no segment of the healthcare industry is more susceptible to disruption than the market for prescription drugs, as Alex Oshmyansky, MD, PhD, made clear Wednesday morning during the closing session of HFMA’s Annual Conference. Oshmyansky spoke about his personal efforts to disrupt the pharmaceutical market in his role as co-founder and CEO of Mark…

Nick Hut June 28, 2023

David Johnson: The orthopod’s dilemma — Caught between the PE rock and the venture capital hard place

The OrthoForum is the premier convening and advocacy organization for large, independent orthopedic physician groups. In March 2022, I gave a keynote address at The OrthoForum’s Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. Attending the conference at the posh Grande Lakes Ritz-Carlton gave me a front-row seat to the economic forces reshaping orthopedic care delivery in the…

David W. Johnson May 24, 2023

CMS issues RFI to gather best practices for identifying and supporting safety net hospitals

As part of the FY24 proposed rule for hospital inpatient payments, CMS is seeking healthcare stakeholder input on how to best support safety net hospitals in the Medicare program. The agency is considering ways to reimburse safety net hospitals via supplemental payments that may be better targeted than disproportionate share hospital (DSH) and uncompensated care…

Nick Hut May 22, 2023

Congress seems inclined to expand site-neutral payment policies in Medicare (updated)

Momentum is building in Congress toward expanding site-neutral payment in Medicare, a move that could reduce payments to hospitals by billions of dollars per year. A recent hearing, which lasted 5 ½ hours, focused on various ideas for promoting transparency and competition in healthcare. The hearing included references to 17 bills or discussion drafts, several…

Nick Hut May 12, 2023
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