Latest data shows positive financial trends for hospitals, but will the good news be fleeting?
June was a promising month in terms of hospital financial performance, but the delta variant of the coronavirus threatens to reverse many of the gains.
Healthcare News of Note: Black patients experience higher rates of adverse patient events relative to white patients, study says
Healthcare News of Note for healthcare finance professionals is a roundup of recent news articles: Black patients experience more adverse patient safety events compared with white patients, telemedicine leads the VC-funded digital health category in 1H 2021, and 10% of the unvaccinated are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Policies to prepare for a future pandemic should center on interoperability between hospitals and public health systems, expert says
The need for better interoperability between hospitals and public health entities is a crucial lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic, a public health official testified to a Senate committee.
Hospital-at-home programs are gaining traction and have well-documented benefits, experts say
A Medicare waiver issued in late 2020 has spurred more health systems to implement home-care programs for acute conditions.
Study: In price negotiations with hospitals, self-insured employers lack leverage
The vast difference in market power between hospitals and employers leaves the latter group with little recourse in negotiations, according to a new study.
ACO leaders support new bill designed to boost participation in value-based payment
Accountable care organizations stand to benefit from a new bill that would increase investment funding and make changes to federal ACO programs, several executives said.
Fitch describes the heightened risk posed by cyberattacks on not-for-profit hospitals
Cyberattacks on NFP hospitals increased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic and show no signs of abating, Fitch says.
HFMA’s Annual Conference virtual preview offers a glimpse of what’s coming in November
The three-hour virtual preview of the Annual Conference, including a look at the educational tracks, key speakers and other attractions, is available on-demand.
Financial Sustainability Report: July 2021
The July 2021 issue of the Financial Sustainability Report, sponsored by Kaufman Hall, includes an account of how one health system assessed the benefits and risk associated with moving its 340B covered-entity pharmacy enterprise to a Limited Liability Company. The issue also includes a commentary on CMS’s new Acute Hospital Care at Home program and a discussion of a new metric, equivalent net patient revenue (ENPR), which organizations can use to assess the relative value of proposed investments in alternative revenue sources.
Maintaining the equilibrium of the physician enterprise amid rapid change is a matter of balance
To ensure the proper functioning of the physician enterprise, hospitals and health systems must establish a balance among three dimensions: The clinicians’ productivity, the capacity to provide patients with access to care when they need it, and he volume of existing and potential patients in the market.