Cost Effectiveness of Health Report, December 2021

The December HFMA’s Cost Effectiveness of Health Report, sponsored by Kaufman Hall, leads off with the fourth and final report for 2021 in HFMA’s Healthcare 2030 series, focused on the long-term direction of strategic investment for hospitals and health systems. Also included are an article describing a new “employer-friendly” model of center of excellence and a commentary on how the FDA’s accelerated approval process may unintentionally be increasing the nation’s drug expense.

Healthcare 2030

The future of strategic investment amid the drastic changes taking place in healthcare
The final 2021 installment in HFMA’s Healthcare 2030 series looks at the investments that will help hospitals and health systems achieve financial sustainability and thrive despite industry turmoil. Providers should be preparing for changes to patient access, care settings, technology, service lines and more that can help the nation achieve better cost effectiveness of health.

Workforce Issues

Recruitment and retention strategies can help mitigate impacts of the Great Resignation
Sponsored by Kaufman Hall
By Joni Coccagna and David Murdock
To maintain a high-quality workforce, hospitals and health systems must take deliberate steps to address common pitfalls in the recruiting process and to adopt proven strategies for enhancing retention.

Physician Burnout

6 ways to ease physicians’ burden from coding, documentation and risk adjustment
By Shannon Lucrez
The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the need for U.S. health systems to gain physician cooperation in documenting and coding patient risk. Yet these organizations also should be mindful of the administrative burden many physicians feel from having to perform these processes, which has contributed to feelings of burnout among them. This article describes six steps hospitals and health systems can take to help ease the administrative burden for physicians, which is necessary to ensure the future quality and effectiveness of the nation’s healthcare system.

Pharmaceutical costs

Accelerated drug approvals raise concerns about cost effectiveness for health system finance leaders
By Andrew Hertler, MD, FACP
In the past year, Americans have witnessed two extremes of the FDA’s accelerated approval process, exposing both profound strengths and worrisome weaknesses. Finance leaders should keep informed about new drug treatment options, their associated costs and efficacy and whether lower-cost alternatives that have the same efficacy are available, so they can engage in meaningful conversations with clinicians about which options truly promote cost effectiveness of health.

Direct Contracting

How to create an employer-friendly healthcare center of excellence
By Kathy Najarian and Daniel Marino
Increasing health expenditures and the pressures of the recent pandemic have contributed to the development of a new type of center of excellence (COE), called the future-state COE, which is designed to better address the needs of large employers. This COE model incorporates value-based contracting and a strong incentive design into a service-line strategy to create employee health programs that benefit employers, patients and providers alike.