December 2018

Among the key functions of an effective patient access program are to ensure patients receive clear and concise bills for their health care and to make those bills easy for patients to pay at the time of service.

Healthcare organizations should be prepared for a lease accounting standard, effective in 2019, that changes the way they are required to report leases on their balance sheets.

Healthcare providers can best manage the risk posed by population health management initiatives by forming captive health plans and acquiring reinsurance to cover potential catastrophic loss.

A health system created a training program for revenue cycle leaders, resulting in improved performance.

An adaptive financial assistance system that bills according to a patient’s economic situation can encourage better rates of patient payment.

An analysis of factors driving increases in payment in the U.S healthcare industry, using Equivalent Discharges as the volume metric, finds that 84 percent of the increase are related to increased population and intensity of service.

Small and solo physician practices are finding better ways of coping with administrative burdens, making it more practical, and desirable, to maintain or return to independence.

An electronic payment system can help a hospital increase revenue.

HFMA, the AHA, and AHIP have developed a guide for healthcare consumers designed to help them know how to avoid surprise out-of-network medical bills; healthcare organizations are encouraged to share the guide with their patients.

The healthcare industry could see some significant changes now that the balance of power in Washington D.C. has shifted. 

As they modify their strategies to account for change in 2019, healthcare organizations should consider how risks and rewards might have changed and where they might best redeploy their dollars.

The healthcare sectors’ extended access to abundant, low-cost, and relatively low-risk capital will change in 2019, and tracking four key issues will illuminate how those changes impact capital finance.

HFMA President and CEO Joe Fifer discusses why today’s healthcare challenges transcend politics—and the implications for healthcare finance leaders. 

An analysis finds a decline in the number of patients admitted to U.S. hospitals without healthcare insurance and an increase in beneficiaries of government-sponsored and commercial insurance plans.

A research highlight that looks at key takeaways from a focus group of senior healthcare leaders about patient collections strategies.

An in-depth look at how one company is enabling more efficient procure-to-pay processes to streamline healthcare organizations’ financial operations. 

Two senior leaders at Grant Thornton talk about the advantages of robotic process automation to improve office efficiency, reduce costs, and mitigate risk.