HFMA is pleased to announce the recipients of the Helen Yerger/L. Vann Seawell Best Article Award for outstanding editorial achievement in hfm magazine in FY17.
Winners of the annual award are selected by a panel of five leaders in the healthcare industry who review each article published in hfm. Articles are judged on the writer’s demonstration of technical quality and writing skills, and contributions to the literature of healthcare finance professionals.
Best Article Award winners for FY17 are the following.
“Managing the True Costs of Health Care: A Roadmap to Cost Analytics”
Pietro Ferrara
February 2017 hfm Early Edition
In a world of shrinking fee-for-service payment, the industry can no longer rely on revenue management; healthcare organizations also require accurate cost management technology and analytics. As the industry toward a value-based system, where outcomes are increasingly evaluated on cost and quality together, older cost management methods, such as relative-value units (RVUs) and ratio of cost to charges (RCC), are no longer optimal. A new methodology is needed to accurately measure activities, resources, and cost objects so that revenues and expenses can be determined based on resources consumed and actions taken to deliver care for each patient across the continuum of care.
“Aligning Systems for Improved Revenue Cycle Performance”
Kelly B. Baker
September 2016 hfm
After seeing exponential growth from acquiring many practices, Novant Health Medical Group (NHMG) experienced a myriad of challenges in its central business office (CBO). To resolve these issues, NHMG moved to a single clearinghouse and post office box for remittances starting in 2010 to bring payment reconciliation processes for all 227 of NHMG’s clinics into the CBO. In addition to reorganizing the revenue cycle services team, long-term performance improvement required rethinking how the revenue cycle department, IT, and clinics should interact.
“Beyond Pilots: Building Scalable, Sustainable Healthcare Bundles”
Anne Wong, Gary Ahlquist, and Carolyn Black
October 2016 hfm
Despite the clear direction that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has set and the potential of bundled care to reduce costs, improve outcomes, and enhance the patient experience, many providers are holding off in developing bundles or have only pursued modest pilots. The authors of this article suggest that, although pilots are a good start, the only way to realize the full benefits of bundles is to deploy them at scale.
“Cybersecurity: An Enterprise Risk Issue”
Tom Andre
February 2017 hfm
Although implementing the safeguards required for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and privacy laws and avoidance of breaches is a sound policy, a similar approach should be considered for all cyberthreats. A cyberattack may not result in a breach of protected health information or personally identifiable information, but it nonetheless can significantly affect a healthcare organization’s operating efficiencies, causing delays and other negative impacts on patient care.
Other high-scoring articles included the following:
“Adapting the Revenue Cycle for Value-Based Purchasing,” David Jensen and Elizabeth Ward, September 2016 hfm
“The Path to Cost Transformation,” Jody Hill-Mischel, Walter W. Morrissey, Kimberly Neese, and Timothy R. Shoger, June 2016 hfm
“Translating Risk Into Revenue: Strategies for Risk-Adjusted Markets,” Brandon Solomon and Brad Helfand, November 2016 hfm
