Key questions for providers after more than 2 years of the price transparency rule
Evidence amassed from over two years of experience with compliance reinforces why providers need to focus on chargemaster prices and self-pay discount policies — and how they can benefit from analyzing trends in consumers’ price searches.
HFMA, Selat/Nawa and KSA Ministry of Health collaborate on one-day educational event in Riyadh
The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) is offering a new international educational opportunity with a one-day healthcare finance event, at the Global Health Exhibition in Riyadh on Oct. 31. Selat, a Riyadh-based revenue cycle management consulting firm and its training arm Nawa, is the exclusive sponsor of the event and will also provide instruction during…
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…
10 Vital Responses to Healthcare Disruption
Disruption is reverberating throughout the healthcare industry, and it’s incumbent on legacy organizations to develop strategic responses for the benefit of their consumers, their communities and themselves. With that overarching challenge becoming ever more pressing, HFMA’s 2023 Spring Thought Leadership Retreat brought together leaders from across the industry May 4-5 in Atlanta to consider approaches…
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…
Annual Conference: HFMA Chair Dennis Dahlen issues a call to action for healthcare finance professionals
The concept of punctuated equilibrium refers to systems that experience isolated episodes of dramatic evolution intermixed with long periods of stasis or something close to it. Dennis Dahlen, who on Tuesday morning was installed as HFMA’s National Chair for FY23-24, thinks the hypothesis applies to healthcare. Speaking to Annual Conference attendees, Dahlen, the CFO of…
Annual Conference: Health system CFO panel reflects on the importance of embracing change
The healthcare industry is enduring tough times, but finance leaders are equipped to guide their organizations through choppy waters, CFOs said Sunday as part of a panel discussion. Speaking onstage during the opening session of HFMA’s Annual Conference in Nashville, five health system CFOs described how they’ve responded during a tumultuous period that began more…
Annual Conference: New HFMA CEO Ann Jordan describes her vision for the Association
Speaking Sunday at Annual Conference, Ann Jordan articulated her vision for how HFMA can support members and positively affect the healthcare industry. Jordan, who succeeded Joe Fifer as president and CEO on June 6, described growing up on a farm in Iowa (“my first career endeavor at the age of 9 was field labor”), then…
A brief guide to the health-equity journey
Over the past few years, our nation has seen an intensified focus on health equity. Spurred in part by the pandemic, which laid bare the vast human cost of remediable health disparities, both civil society and government are increasingly focused on improving health equity. So are healthcare organizations themselves, many of which are launching or…
Strategic alternatives abound for health system outreach laboratories
Various industry pressures have accelerated an evolution in laboratory businesses in recent years, with particular impacts on labs owned by health systems. As a result, many health systems are considering alternatives for their labs, with an emphasis on outreach labs. A health system’s outreach lab business includes tests ordered for patients primarily in non-acute settings…