August 2018

Health systems looking to enter a merger or acquisition should do a full study on the IT department of the acquired organization.

To gain the assurance of success under value-based care, all accountable care organizations (ACOs) should adopt the best practices of the most high-performing ACOs.

Healthcare organizations that adopt a managed equipment services model will be better equipped to face the challenges of the industry.

Stewart Simonson, former HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness, points to four areas where potentially affected hospitals should consider revising their disaster preparedness plans in preparation for hurricane season.

A North Dakota health system has seen positive results in patient wait times and staff productivity by using real-time location system technology.

As a hospital’s major source of income, surgical procedures present the biggest opportunities for cost savings and process improvement.

Health systems that own physician practices should fully address losses those practices incur and take steps to remediate the issues underlying those losses.

The hospital-at-home model provides a potential means of reducing total costs of care and improving outcomes, but it would present traditional acute care hospitals with a strategic challenge.

Mobile communication technology can allow a healthcare organization to operate more efficiently, resulting in cost savings and increased patient and staff satisfaction.

Healthcare finance leaders should be attuned to the presence of opportunities for innovative improvements that may exist all around them.

The appointment of Atul Gawande to lead the Amazon-Berkshire Hathaway-JPM Morgan Chase healthcare venture could be an important step toward finding effective solutions to the deficiencies of the nation’s healthcare system.

To avoid making changes simply for the sake of change, healthcare leaders should attend to any unfinished business from prior changes and ensure any new move toward consolidation accounts for future uncertainty as well as potential new opportunities. 

An expansion of Medicare Advantage presents an opportunity for the U.S. to test the waters of a single-payer system.

To achieve a truly effective merger integration, careful attention should be paid to treasury operations and invested assets, along with capital management and external financing.

HFMA President and CEO Joe Fifer discusses the implications of the experience economy for healthcare finance leaders.

The number of ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program increased at a faster rate from 2013 to 2018 than did the number of participants that achieved shared savings in the first four years of the program.

An analysis looked at Medicare cost reports to compared trends in capital costs for buildings and fixtures among different types of acute care hospitals.

Education report that delves into the importance of revamping accounts payable and considering automation.

A roundtable discussion about 2017 tax law changes and strategies for optimizing capital structure.

One of Grant Thornton’s senior healthcare consultants addresses the topic of workforce management and the importance of a data-driven approach.