Capital Finance
Two percent cuts may not sound deep, but the sequester, scheduled to start March 1 unless Congress acts, will be painful, and has the healthcare industry worried.
The New Jersey Hospital Association is expanding an innovative "gainsharing" pilot program designed to improve healthcare efficiency and reduce costs by promoting better coordination and collaboration among New Jersey hospitals and physicians.
In order to survive in the ever-changing healthcare marketplace while saddled with new healthcare reform mandates, hospitals around the country must optimize three fundamental components of care delivery: clinical/operational integration, financial integration, and shared infrastructure and governance.
Concerns are emerging that the adoption of electronic health records is leading to inappropriate increases in billings to payers, including Medicare, and that these higher billings could undermine or even overwhelm any cost savings generated by the digitization of providers.
Medicare patients can anticipate paying considerably less for their diabetes and other products starting in July when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expands its competitive bidding for durable medical equipment (DME) and mail-order program but the DME industry continues to point out problems with the program.
A report released last month by the California HealthCare Foundation found that total and operating margins in the state's hospitals were higher than they have been in the past nine years -- 5.1 percent and 3.1 percent respectively. But looking beyond those two basic numbers, hospitals are working on razor-thin margins.
A new study is adding fuel to the debate over the value of copay offset cards, used to defer a patient's copayment for prescription medications.
While the nation's healthcare costs continue to drain the economy, several forward thinking provider organizations are finding ways to turn the situation around with carefully thought out telemed programs. A recent report from the Commonwealth Fund highlights the cost effective approaches used by three "model citizens."
On Valentine's Day, it's either joy or heartbreak -- and for CFOs of hospitals, it's no different. John McCarthy, general manager of asset management at GE Healthcare, consults CFOs nationwide and has witnessed the heartbreak of CFOs. For Healthcare Finance News, he outlines the heartbreak he's seen first hand.
Rural hospitals are girding for harsh impacts from a 2 percent decrease in Medicare reimbursements under federal spending sequestration, set to take effect in March, by taking advantage of how they already operate, a new report suggests.