Healthcare Cost Containment: April 2018

Healthcare Cost Containment subscribers can access the individual articles and web exclusives listed below.

Cost Accounting

Time Is Money: Aurora Health’s 5-Month Cost Accounting Journey 

By Patrick Nolan

Recognizing the intense multidisciplinary effort required to implement cost accounting, Aurora Health followed a step-by-step approach that emphasized structure, validation, training, maintenance, and optimization. 

Containing Drug Costs

Leading Hospitals Turn to Advanced Strategies for Pharmacy Savings 

By Laura Ramos Hegwer

Organizations like Froedtert Health and Intermountain Healthcare are working on both internal and collaborative strategies to reduce pharmacy costs and improve clinical care.

Managing Chronic Conditions

Caregiver Support May Help Reduce Costs

An interview with Claire K. Ankuda, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, by Laura Ramos Hegwer

Family caregivers’ fatigue was associated with $1,937 higher costs while caregiver sadness was associated with $1,323 higher costs during a six-month period. Patients with severely fatigued caregivers also were more likely to visit the emergency department.

Decision Support

How Is Your Hospital Managing Costs Across Its Physician Enterprise? 

From our Sponsor Kaufman Hall

By Daniel Seargeant and Cynthia Arnold

Several factors have challenged hospitals’ goals of achieving more comprehensive views of costs at the physician enterprise level, including governance, data sharing, and financial performance expectations.

Creating a Culture of Efficiency

Christiana Care Avoids $100M In Costs by Improving Quality, Cutting Waste

By Laura Ramos Hegwer

Leaders at Christiana Care have reduced waste by ensuring appropriate use of telemetry and modifying their electronic health record to eliminate ordering of automatically recurring lab tests. They also have improved outcomes by better managing blood products and using a care management tool to target at-risk groups.

Reducing Waste

Hidden Costs of Duplicate Patient Records

By Gordon Cooper and Christie Scanlon

Accurate patient data is more important than ever as value-based payment models take hold. An enterprise-wide database is one solution to avoid duplicate patient records that negatively affect productivity and costs.

Healthcare Costs at a Glance

Some M&A Transactions Reduce Costs

Approximately 40 percent of healthcare finance executives said they achieved 25 percent or more of their cost reduction goals, according to a report by HFMA and Deloitte.