Medicare should update its policies for separately payable drugs in the Outpatient Prospective Payment System, MedPAC says
Worthwhile changes include requiring drugs to be proven clinically superior before granting them pass-through payment status, according to a new report.
Financial Sustainability Report: June 2021
This June issue of the Financial Sustainability Report, sponsored by Kaufman Hall, leads off with results of HFMA’s recent report examining the evolving role of the healthcare CFO over the next decade. Two features also examine steps health systems can take to promote success with value-based payment initiatives, including developing models to inform their efforts with risk-based contracts and focusing efforts on removing impediments to success under such contracts.
Healthcare CFOs should ensure their organizations’ contracts are well administered to avoid financial risk exposure
Administering contracts is a core activity for healthcare organizations, given that contracts collectively reflect the organization’s business obligations, including all assets, relationships and terms it is required to manage. It therefore is an important concern for the senior finance leader.
Healthcare News of Note: Struggling rural hospitals have option to become stand-alone EDs to receive more funding
Healthcare News of Note for healthcare finance professionals is a roundup of recent news articles: An upcoming option for rural hospitals to receive more funding, a key factor in outcomes of Black patients who receive COVID-19 care, and predictions about the hospital room of the future.
The state of the 340B program: What the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act ruling meant, and which issues still loom
An under-the-radar aspect of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act involved hospital eligibility for the 340B program, an industry expert says.
Transitioning health systems to accepting more risk: Key steps to ensuring financial sustainability
The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed many health systems’ interest in pursuing population health initiatives. Yet success with such initiatives will remain elusive if they do not address two common barriers to success: lack of aligned incentives and insufficient infrastructure.
In response to requests, HHS offers accommodations on deadlines for Provider Relief Fund spending and reporting (updated)
The new deadlines apply to allocations received after June 30, 2020. Reporting on use of funds is required only for designated time periods during which a provider’s payment exceeded $10,000.
HFMA survey of healthcare finance professionals highlights continuing pandemic-related challenges and some reasons for optimism
Results of HFMA's Outlook Survey show that the healthcare industry is still coping with the challenges of COVID-19 but has started to adapt to a post-pandemic future.
Healthcare News of Note: More healthcare organizations mandating that employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine
Healthcare News of Note for healthcare finance professionals is a roundup of recent news articles: COVID-19 vaccine mandates become more popular among healthcare organizations, hospitals continue to skirt price transparency rules, and healthcare workers get help in coping with trauma.
Medicare indirect medical education payments to teaching hospitals should be overhauled, MedPAC says
Although the proposals represent a significant change, most hospitals wouldn’t be projected to experience a large impact on their payments.