Is This the Age of the Payvider?
By now, most health systems are familiar with the term payvider, and many are weighing the pros and cons of initiating their own payvider solution. The critical tipping point to act may well be here today, as health systems feel increased pressure to make greater financial and strategic impact for their organizations even as conditions…
It starts with mental health: How caring for transgender youth makes for healthier adults
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, returns to the podcast to discuss the misconceptions around transition-related care for young people.
Cost Effectiveness of Health Report, August 2023
This issue of HFMA’s Cost Effectiveness of Health Report, sponsored by Kaufman, Hall & Associates, LLC, features an expert-reviewed article that examines lessons learned after two years of price transparency regulations. Also included is a commentary that highlights a new initiative focused on the problem of homelessness, in which healthcare providers can play a meaningful role. Price…
Healthcare News of Note: Providers in these 10 states may struggle the most to collect claims from payers
Over the past few weeks, I have found these industry news stories that should be of interest to healthcare finance professionals. 1. The top and bottom states for paying provider claims are detailed in new report “A connection exists between where a provider operates and how fast and accurately claims are paid,” according to a…
The 5 provider strategies to improve profit margins
Improving financial performance and operating margins has become one of the most pressing concerns for health system CEOs. To meet future margin targets, leaders will have to bring a new level of focus, resources and structure to achieve deeper cost reductions on a recurring basis. At the same time, this is critical to ensuring that…
Summary: 10 vital responses to healthcare disruption
Note: This article is a summary of a report on HFMA’s Spring Thought Leadership Retreat. The full report is available to download. Disruption is reverberating throughout the healthcare industry, and it’s incumbent on legacy organizations to develop strategic responses for the benefit of their consumers, their communities and themselves. With that overarching challenge becoming ever…
Ken Perez: How homelessness and healthcare are inextricably linked
Homelessness is a worsening problem for the United States, and in multiple ways, it is a healthcare issue. Many of our nation’s failed efforts to solve this problem, outlined below, do not fully acknowledge this reality. But a promising new not-for-profit initiative, Built for Zero, may provide a truly viable solution using a data-driven approach…
Data indicate hospital operational logjams haven’t ceased after the public health emergency (updated)
Note: The fourth section of this article has been updated with news of proposed mandatory staffing ratios for long-term care facilities. Some of the problems that strained hospital operations during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic have eased, but not enough to mark a true industrywide recovery, a recently released report suggests. Notably, the process…
Children’s hospitals swim against the tide to improve the health of their patients and communities
As the nation’s pediatric hospitals strive to keep kids healthy, they face obstacles that reflect the difficulty of enacting structural changes in care delivery. Even pediatric hospitals that are eager to engage in value-based payment (VBP) models can have a hard time establishing the type of network that allows them to affect the holistic health…
How to staff smarter and reduce reliance on expensive travel contracts
To bridge the healthcare staffing gap and tackle workforce issues such as burnout, spikes in labor costs, and rising retirements among nurses, hospitals and healthcare facilities need a technology-driven approach that empowers staffing managers with the control needed to address fluctuating patient volume without understaffing or overspending on labor. This How-To guide highlights the challenges,…