Cover Story
Mastering Risk: How Healthcare Organizations Can Tap into the Power of Enterprise Risk
Healthcare organizations should adopt enterprise risk management, a coordinated approach to managing risk that looks at how each area of risk affects the organization’s operational and strategic plans.
By Marti Arvin, JD
Web Exclusives
States look to Medicare-based reference pricing as the solution to price variation for employee hospital services
Montana and North Carolina are leaders among states in seeking to reduce their healthcare costs by adopting reference pricing, where payment rates are based on Medicare rates.
By Chad Mulvany, FHFMA
Features
How a Hospital or Health System Can Assess the Risk of Moving to Value-Based Payment
To gain a clearer understanding of the financial impact of transitioning to a value-based model, healthcare executives can learn from the experiences of another health system that has undertaken a similar migration.
By Ross Armstrong, Daniel Pribe, John Fryer, and Benjamin Kline, MBA
Utilization Review: 5 Reasons Hospitals Lose Revenue
An effective utilization review program must revolve around the right management and processes as well as communication among teams.
By Lisa Bragg and Amanda (Fishman) Koroly
Case Study
How University of Texas Medical Branch Reduced Readmission Rates Using a Data-Driven, Multidisciplinary Approach
An approach used by University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) to reduce 30-day readmission rates exemplifies how healthcare organizations can best use real-time data analytics and standardized process for this purpose.
By Dustin J. Thomas, MBA, and Heather Schoonover, MN, ARNP, PHCNS-BC, FCNS
Focus Area
Payment
HOPDs vs. ASC: Understanding Payment Differences
The growth of ambulatory surgery centers has hospitals and health systems looking at payment in a new way.
By David McMillan, CPA, Derek Long, ASA, and Anderson Payne
Columns
From the Chair
For Healthcare Finance Leaders, Imaging Tomorrow Involves Risk
If healthcare finance leaders want to reduce costs, provide better health outcomes, and improve patient satisfaction, they must seize opportunities and manage risks.
By Kevin Brennan, FHFMA, CPA
Eye on Washington
CMS Overhauls the Medicare Shared Savings Program
The policy discussion around CMS’s recent redesign of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) has been relatively devoid of partisanship.
By Ken Perez
Integration
Why Healthcare Forecasting is a Combination of Art and Science
A healthcare forecast is based on an analysis of related costs and trends, but a forecaster’s predictions also should consider the possibility of future crossroads where several vectors of change intersect.
By Keith D. Moore, MCP, and Dean C. Coddington, MBA
Healthcare Innovation
Confessions of an Innovation Killer
Finance leaders should take care to not fall victim to innovation killers.
By Jeff Helton, PhD, FHFMA, CMA, CFE
Capital Finance
An Integrated Approach Can Direct Risk and Resource Allocation
Market volatility requires hospitals to identify contributors to cash flow variability, quantify potential related risks, and identify how the risks might manifest themselves.
By Robert Turner and Eric A. Jordahl
From the President
Healthcare Finance Leaders Should Belong the Heartbeat of Progress
HFMA President and CEO Joe Fifer shares highlights of HFMA’s new initiative to reinvent the membership experience.
By Joseph J. Fifer, FHFMA, CPA
Departments
Data Trends
National SNF Analysis Detects Decline in Average Length of Stay
U.S. skilled nursing facilities saw a decline in average length of stay from 2011 through 2017, coupled with an increase in discharges.
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HFMA Peer Review Spotlight
Peer Review Spotlight: SEI
An industry-leading OCIO outsourcing company talks about how it helps healthcare finance executives manage their organizations’ financial profiles.
HFMA Trendsetter
Cracking the Code on Physician Practice Performance
A look at how one company is working with health systems and medical groups to better capture and respond to physician practice performance data.
