Strategic Partnerships Mergers and Acquisitions

The December 2020 Financial Sustainability Report, sponsored by Kaufmann Hall, examines hospitals’ and health systems’ growing imperative, driven by COVID-19, to pivot their OR strategy to the ambulatory care arena. Other content explores new initiatives focused on SDOH and new opportunities to reduce costs of physician credentialling through collaboration enabled by distributed ledger technology.

When pursuing a merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction, merging parties should engage in intentional integration planning to avoid potential barriers that can dampen new organization's promise. Ideally, integration planning starts with developing a strong business case and continues through the pre-close transition and efforts to combine operations within the new organization.

A healthcare organization's an A/P financing solution for supplier payments should reflect its financaI needs needs while also strengthening its relationships with suppliers.

The question about whether to integrate was answered more than a decade ago. The questions now are, “How do we take full advantage of integration?” and “What do we integrate next and how?”

An August HFMA survey, sponsored by GHX, found that, overall, hospitals and health systems are optimistic about seeing improvements in coordination and collaboration with partners in risk-based payment models over the next five years. The findings suggest organizations are moving ahead unabated in their value-based payment strategies.

Hospitals were the biggest gainer in October jobs among healthcare organizations, although they have not restored all jobs shed earlier this year.

At HFMA's Digital Annual Conference, President and CEO Joe Fifer presented CMS Administrator Seema Verma with the Association's highest honor: the Richard L. Clarke Board of Directors Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to healthcare in a role that involves oversight of a $1 trillion budget, representing 26% of the total federal budget, and administration of health coverage programs for more than 130 million Americans. Following the presentation, Fifer and Verma had a Q&A session in which she addressed price transparency, the pandemic, and the future of value-based care.

The recovery plan healthcare organizations use to address the impact of COVID-19 and other factors that have damaged the financial foundations of healthcare delivery are likely to involve increased integration.

Supporters and opponents of hospital mergers and acquisitions expect such deals to increase in the aftermath of COVID-19..

HFMA's Katie Gilfillan says the time may be right for a re-orientation of the healthcare system, where hospitals, physician groups and purchasers of care along with payment models are aligned to support a more patient-centric system.