Financial and operational pressures continue for hospitals amid some positive signs
New financial data for the hospital industry illustrate continuing challenges even as some trends improve. Fitch Ratings released an analysis in early March that offers scant reason for optimism. Titled “Early NFP Hospital Medians Show Expected Deterioration; Will Worsen,” it draws on data from hospitals with earlier 2022 financial year-ends. Those numbers show “materially weaker…
Affordability of healthcare is not enhanced when providers form health systems, studies find
The efficiencies gained when providers operate as a health system don’t always translate to care that is more cost-effective, according to two recently published JAMA studies on pricing. In one study, researchers with Harvard Medical School and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) examined 2018 data from various sources, including CMS administrative data, IRS…
The real dangers of an obesity diagnosis
Medical researcher and patient advocate Ragen Chastain discusses why the body mass index is misleading and how it can lead to discrimination in healthcare.
Aaron Crane: What’s cost effectiveness of health going to take?
We say we want to improve the cost effectiveness of health (CEoH). But what does that really mean? Let’s think about it for a moment. The most ambiguous word here is cost. Hearing it, most hospital- and provider-centric leaders would first think about the expenses incurred in their operations: Labor, supplies, utilities, purchased services, etc.…
AI and the rise of human-machine collaboration in healthcare
Commentators, researchers and academics can’t stop finding applications for ChatGPT.a Two of its recent claims to fame include passing all three medical licensing exams and the final exam for a core MBA class at Wharton.b ChatGPT, short for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, is a form of conversational artificial intelligence (AI). The concept is not new.…
4 reasons why now is the time to revisit value-based care
Lessons from the pandemic, investment trends, shifts in Medicare policy, and technological change suggest that now may be the time to reconsider and revisit value-based care. Value-based care has been a hot topic for years now. Every conference, every industry meeting and every publication has talked about the importance of moving “from volume to value.”…
Hospital price transparency update: Regulatory enforcement soon could become stricter, CMS leaders say
Although nothing is official, CMS leaders indicate enforcement of hospital price transparency regulations is set to become more stringent. For an article published in Health Affairs, the Center for Medicare’s Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD, director, and Douglas Jacobs, MD, chief transformation officer, touted progress that has been made since the rules took effect Jan. 1,…
Care coordination networks offer path to addressing problems of health inequity
Initiatives to improve access to care and address social determinants of health (SDoH) have been shown to work. To be successful, they need sustained support from all stakeholders within our nation’s healthcare system.
In federal ACO programs, advocates see signs of slow but steady progress
Growth in accountable care organization (ACO) programs has been inconsistent since the Affordable Care Act made accountable care part of the healthcare lexicon in 2010. Nonetheless, proponents are optimistic about the state of ACOs and their potential in upcoming years, even if there’s uncertainty about CMS’s ability to achieve its stated goal of ensuring every…
DOJ withdraws guidance that bolstered antitrust safe harbors for GPOs, cost benchmarking and more
Potentially leading to stricter enforcement of antitrust policy in healthcare, the U.S. Department of Justice has withdrawn guidance that essentially promoted certain arrangements in the industry. The Feb. 3 announcement from DOJ’s Antitrust Division amounts to a cancellation of so-called “safety zones” that were established in three sets of nonbinding guidance issued between 1993 and…