Hospital payments have been substantially affected by the Change Healthcare cyberattack, report finds
Newly published data reflect the extent of the payment loss experienced by hospitals and health systems during the first month or so after the Change Healthcare cyberattack. A report (registration required) published in mid-May by Strata finds that gaps in expected revenue ranged from 16.5% to 17.9% per hospital for Q1. The insights were culled…
Andrew Donahue: An open letter to Congress on nonprofit hospital finances
There’s a lot of bad information out there on nonprofit hospital finances. Part of the problem is run-of-the-mill scapegoating — stakeholders with an agenda using our business complexity to muddy the water. Part of the problem is classic misuse of information — good people with good intentions making the wrong assumptions. And part of the…
The “dystopian” state of primary care
Dr. Vishnukamal Golla discusses the challenges facing primary care physicians and their patients. News team Nick Hut and Shawn Stack provide an update on the Change Healthcare cyberattack and other current events.
Hospital finances are on the upswing, but the toll of the Change Healthcare outage is yet to be seen
Note: The second section of this article was updated where noted with a new comment from Fitch Ratings. There is reason to be optimistic about the state of hospital finances, but the impact of the Change Healthcare cyberattack has added uncertainty to the forecasts. Financial metrics for the first two months of 2024 continued to…
Payer trends health systems should watch closely in 2024
Health system leaders focused on the day-to-day needs of their organization can sometimes lose sight of key developments in other sectors of healthcare. But in an interconnected healthcare ecosystem, understanding the trendlines their payer counterparts are facing is essential. Threats to payers While some health system leaders might be under the impression that payers are…
Hospitals warrant an extra boost in their Medicare payment rate next year, MedPAC says
Hospitals will get a more favorable Medicare payment increase in FY25 if Congress follows the recommendations of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). In its semiannual report to Congress, MedPAC recommended a 1.5% bump on top of what otherwise would be provided according to statute. That would mean an estimated increase of about 4.5% for…
The federal policy response to the Change Healthcare cyberattack
Note: This information is excerpted from HFMA’s running coverage of the cyberattack that disabled operations at Change Healthcare. On March 10, HHS and the Department of Labor sent a letter encouraging commercial payers to do their part to help financially strained providers nearly three weeks after the cyberattack on Change Healthcare. “Larger payers in particular…
Compassionate crusade: The role of healthcare in addressing homelessness
Homelessness poses a daunting national challenge. And the challenge worsened as a result of the pandemic, rising from roughly 582,000 people in 2022 to more than 653,000 people in 2023.a Clearly, keeping homeless people out of the ED is a pivotal goal in the battle against homelessness. But it is one that health systems cannot…
While increasing revenue is a top goal for 2024, improving the patient experience is a close second — specially for large health systems: HFMA poll
In a recently conducted survey, 70% of 92 respondents said increasing revenue is a top priority in 2024 followed by improving the patient experience (60%) and reducing costs (55%). Review other key findings in this research report.
Ken Perez: Assessing the U.S. response to the healthcare needs of migrants and asylum seekers
Immigration, for decades one of the most politically charged issues in the United States, is emerging as a top issue during this election year. A poll of 1,074 U.S. adults conducted Nov. 30-Dec. 4, 2023, found that immigration ranked as the fourth-highest priority for 2024, with 35% of those surveyed indicating that they want the…