Operations Management

Maryland’s all-inclusive population health payment model continues to show promise, but nonhospital spending poses a concern

An innovative payment model for Maryland healthcare providers has improved utilization, cost and quality thus far, but an increase in nonhospital spending requires further study. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) released an analysis of the first three years of Maryland’s Total Cost of Care Model, an effort to improve population health management.…

Nick Hut March 31, 2023

How investing in the workforce can improve a health system’s bottom line

The year 2022 will be remembered as one of the worst financial years on record for healthcare. It will also be recalled as the year when the anticipated workforce shortage moved from being just one of many strategic concerns for health system leaders to becoming their most critical and urgent challenge. The rapidity with which…

Rodney B. Hanners March 29, 2023

Reports on patient safety indicate progress, challenges and a need to focus on pediatric mental health

Recent reports add context to the issue of patient safety in hospitals and health systems. ECRI released a report that ranks the pediatric mental health crisis as the No. 1 patient safety issue in healthcare. The report cites a JAMA study that found increases of 29% in anxiety and 27% in depression between 2016 and…

Nick Hut March 29, 2023

The impact of claims denials on the financial health of healthcare

While their hospitals and healthcare centers have long had to deal with claims denials, the number of denied claims continues to rise and payers are showing little inclination to help solve the problem, according to several roundtable participants.

HFMA March 29, 2023

Best practices for relieving unprecedented cost pressures facing healthcare providers

Due to labor cost increases, inflation, declining Medicare reimbursements and other reasons, health systems across the nation are feeling a new financial strain after the height of the pandemic.

HFMA March 29, 2023

Meeting healthcare’s workforce challenges requires innovation — with a dose of humanity

There is no low-hanging fruit left in workforce innovation. Yet hospital and health system finance executives who are looking for investments their organizations can make to reach higher up the tree should not be deterred. They can follow the lead of health systems that have already taken risk and reaped rewards — from taking an…

Liz DeForest March 28, 2023

Healthcare News of Note: Medicare to negotiate reduced prices for 40 drugs by 2028, says study

Medicare drug price negotiation has the potential to benefit Medicare beneficiaries across some of the most common disease states.

Deborah Filipek March 23, 2023

Healthcare News of Note: Most board members of the nation’s top hospitals work in finance or business

Less than 15% of board members at a sampling of the nation’s top hospitals are health professionals, while 56% work in finance or business. Since 2014, the number of medically disenfranchised people in the U.S. nearly doubled from 56 million to over 100 million, causing stress for providers and lower rates of immunization and rising…

Deborah Filipek March 17, 2023

Financial and operational pressures continue for hospitals amid some positive signs

New financial data for the hospital industry illustrate continuing challenges even as some trends improve. Fitch Ratings released an analysis in early March that offers scant reason for optimism. Titled “Early NFP Hospital Medians Show Expected Deterioration; Will Worsen,” it draws on data from hospitals with earlier 2022 financial year-ends. Those numbers show “materially weaker…

Nick Hut March 6, 2023

Healthcare News of Note: New PCORI initiative targets industry’s slowness in adopting results of comparative effectiveness research

Over the past few weeks, I have found these industry news stories that should be of interest to healthcare finance professionals.     1. Goal of PCORI initiative: Reduce the estimated 17-year wait time to adopt new and better treatments Forty-two health systems have signed on to an initiative to translate new research into changes in…

Deborah Filipek March 3, 2023
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