The December issue of Healthcare Finance News highlights the biggest stories our staff covered across the previous 12 months. And as has been the case for much of the past decade, many of the top issues deal with the tremendous changes impacting the healthcare industry.
Accountable care organizations, or ACOs, have been a healthcare reform talking point for years. Senior editor Mary Mosquera takes a look at the some early returns on ACOs, to determine what can be said about quality improvement and financial results when the ACO approach is implemented. Mosquera also examined the long-awaited opening of the health insurance exchanges, including the troubled launch of the federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov.
Unnerving change for hospitals is often related to regulatory rule making. According to managing editor Stephanie Bouchard, two regulations in particular had the attention of hospitals this year: the two-midnight rule and the final rule on disproportionate share hospital payments from Medicaid. And no one should forget the ICD-10 transition deadline, which hits U.S. healthcare on October 1, 2014.
Of course, hospitals have also been put on notice that Medicare will penalize facilities for avoidable readmissions. Associate editor Kelsey Getchell reminds us of this and encourages providers, in the age of mergers and consolidations, to perform due diligence before entering into any form of partnership arrangement.
In addition to these and other engaging articles, the December issue features a number of profiles of industry leaders, including former CMS administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle, the CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine, and a variety of health system executives.
Enjoy the issue, and let us know how we're doing by contacting any of our writers directly, or me at richard.pizzi@himssmedia.com.