Cost Effectiveness of Health Report, February 2022

Sponsored by Kaufman-Hall

The January HFMA’s Cost Effectiveness of Health Report, sponsored by Kaufman Hall, explores key tactics successful independent community hospitals use to help them sustain their mission to the communities they serve. Also included is a preview of the first of a series of columns by hfm columnist David Johnson addressing the need for nonprofit health systems to address 5 structural defects that keep them from delivering truly high-quality care to patients.

Community hospitals

4 essential tactics for sustaining an independent community hospital
By John Budd, MBA, and Don Briones, MBA
Independent community hospitals face threats to their survival, and they need to take deliberate action to address those threats in order to continue to deliver essential care cost effectively to their communities. Leading community hospitals that are committed to remaining independent share the tactics they have adopted to ensure their independence is sustainable

Quality and performance improvement

Cracks in the foundation: 5 structural defects are undermining nonprofit healthcare
By David W. Johnson
The relentless organizational imperative under which nonprofit healthcare providers operate to optimize revenues under fee-for-service medicine has led to fragmented care delivery, unsustainable cost growth and severed connections with American consumers. Nonprofits should address five structural defects to their modus operandi that stand in the way of their delivering care empathetically and cost effectively to their patients.

Capital Finance

Healthcare providers face a growing risk of violating debt covenants 
By Steven Shill 
COVID-19 has increased the financial strain on healthcare providers that puts them at risk of being noncompliant with lending covenants. They should be taking proactive steps now to avoid or mitigate the potentially severe adverse financial consequence of such an occurrence.

Partnerships and value

U.S. healthcare system is poised to begin a new phase in partnerships
By Anu Singh
Healthcare provider organizations should prepare for an emerging new phase in the evolution of healthcare partnerships, characterized by an increasingly diverse array of choices among care sites and settings for consumers, health plans and employers. In responding to the opportunities presented in this new partnership phase, providers should adopt a strategy that applies important lessons learned during the pandemic.