Healthcare News of Note: Halting elective surgeries in early 2020 cost hospitals $22.3 billion
Healthcare News of Note for healthcare finance professionals is a roundup of articles from the past week, including hospitals’ loss of revenue from halting elective surgeries, what healthcare providers want Biden to focus on and a new survey on physician burnout.
iVita Financial: Reducing bad debt while improving the patient financial experience
Gain insight into a program that improves patient collections, accelerating cash flow and shrinking bad debt, while boosting patient satisfaction and enabling a more patient-centric service experience in this business profile.
Prospective HHS secretary: ‘We will do robust enforcement to make sure that price transparency is there for all Americans’
Xavier Becerra, the nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration, said transparency is a vital step in addressing the issue of healthcare prices.
Haven and the dynamics of transformational change
HFMA President and CEO Joe Fifer offers a perspective on the implications of Haven’s dissolution for healthcare finance leaders.
The evolution of integrated health system leader roles
Leadership of an integrated health system has become an increasingly complex undertaking today because of the many roles a leader must assume.
The fall of Haven, but the persistence of Amazon
Although many might have viewed the decision by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to shut down Haven, their ambitious joint venture, as a setback for Amazon, in particular, there is good reason to believe Amazon has not given up plans for a deeper involvement in healthcare.
News Briefs: Latest patient volume data reveals some of the challenges facing hospitals in the COVID-19 era
Recent industry reports have quantified the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital patient volume.
RAND report finds regulating hospital prices would be the most effective way to reduce healthcare spending, but are the proposals viable?
The American Hospital Association had a negative reaction to study findings showing that regulation of hospital prices would be the most effective way to reduce prices paid by commercial insurers.
Front-line stories: How today’s prior authorization processes create a burden of waste for providers
As hospitals continue to struggle with razor-thin margins, they should actively identify activities that create financial burdens for them without delivering value to patients. One health system’s stories of administrative waste due to prior authorization processes show why this activity should be be high on their list.
It’s all in the breath: An argument for improved outcomes and reduced costs in healthcare
Effective breathing is known to promote good health, but our healthcare system has given relatively little attention to the concept of breathing therapy. COVID-19 has increased the need for a greater focus on this issue, and there are simple steps healthcare organizations can take to address it.