The intersection of quality and finance, with Rick Gundling and Stephanie Mercado
HFMA's Rick Gundling and Stephanie Mercado from the National Association for Healthcare Quality discuss how all entities within a healthcare organization can work for better quality.
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…
5 things to know about Medicare’s FY24 final rule for inpatient payments as hospitals foresee adverse impacts
The FY24 final rule for Medicare inpatient payments didn’t bring hospitals the type of rate update they sought, and for some organizations a bigger concern is changes to uncompensated care (UC) payments and disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments. Here are five big points about the regulations, which take effect Oct. 1 and also cover Medicare…
Hospital operational changes underway as health equity becomes one of The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals
Reducing healthcare disparities became a Joint Commission accreditation standard (LD.04.03.08) on Jan. 1, a little more than a year after the organization issued a Sentinel Event Alert warning of impacts on patient safety. However, on July 1, the standard will become a National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG), which experts say points to one thing: Healthcare…
Reports on patient safety indicate progress, challenges and a need to focus on pediatric mental health
Recent reports add context to the issue of patient safety in hospitals and health systems. ECRI released a report that ranks the pediatric mental health crisis as the No. 1 patient safety issue in healthcare. The report cites a JAMA study that found increases of 29% in anxiety and 27% in depression between 2016 and…
Healthcare News of Note: Amazon closes its deal with One Medical, touts opportunity to scale a new primary care model
Amazon closes its deal with One Medical
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…
Healthcare News of Note: 7 hospitals earn a Press Ganey award for outstanding nursing quality
Seven hospitals were recognized for elevating nursing excellence and improving patient outcomes with Press Ganey’s National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators Award for Outstanding Nursing Quality. Only 48% of Americans rank the quality of U.S. healthcare as excellent or good, according to results of a Gallup Health and Healthcare survey. Nearly half of Americans are…
How healthcare providers can break down barriers to effective data governance
Promoting improved data governance in the hospital and health system sector has become a just cause of sorts for Randy Albert, who serves as vice president of finance – operations and analytics at Maine-based Northern Light Health and is a member of HFMA’s Northern New England Chapter. “This is a topic that I’m incredibly passionate…
Healthcare News of Note: What were the 5 most-read Healthcare News of Note blog entries of 2022?
This week’s edition of Healthcare News of Note is devoted to the top five Healthcare News of Note blog posts from 2022. Find out what topics healthcare finance professionals found most interesting in this year-end wrap-up.