Accounting & Financial Management
After years of losing money, River's Edge Hospital in St. Peter, Minnesota posted a profitable 2015 and is considering expanding the facility, an uncommon story for a rural, critical-access hospital.
As hospital finance execs work to navigate pricing pressures, transitions in patient coverage and new competitors, The Advisory Board said leaders are facing several mandates to change or risk losing a lot of money.
Nearly three-quarters of health systems with more than 300 beds -- and 81 percent of providers with fewer than 300 beds -- are shifting their focus to IT outsourcing as bottom-line pressures force systems to choose outside vendors, according to a new Black Book Research survey of hospital finance and tech administrators.
Many primary care practitioners will be a little poorer next year because of the expiration of a health law program that has been paying them a 10 percent bonus for caring for Medicare patients.
In the last five years, 57 rural hospitals in the United States have closed, according to data from the Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina. Others have declared bankruptcy, like the Mendocino Coast District Hospital.
This year, Healthcare Finance is asking its audience of healthcare finance decision-makers to help us rank the top issues with its inaugural, "Year that was, year that will be" survey.
As the state-run Hawaii Health Systems Corp. faces a $50 million budget shortfall, one of its key executives is mulling his options after laying claim to some of the system's most successful initiatives.
The role of the chief financial officer is one in flux, and areas not traditionally under their authority are now taking center stage.
According to the CareCloud Practice Profitability Index, about 59 percent of owners surveyed said they were not planning to sell or merge, an uptick compared to the 54 percent who said the same thing last year.
Only a third of providers interviewed believe the ACA will lower the per-patient cost of healthcare, compared to two-thirds a year ago, according to a 2015 Mortenson Healthcare Industry study.