Strategic Planning
Hospitals in Georgia have struggled financially in recent years, as uncompensated care costs rose after the recession and the state rejected Medicaid expansion. But one standalone facility decided that affiliation and clinical integration might be the right path to stave off closure.
One third of Pennsylvania's hospitals had negative operating margins in the 2013 fiscal year, according to the Pennsylvania Healthcare Cost Containment Council, an independent state agency. The crisis is forcing health systems to rethink organizational mergers and management.
Back in January, U.S. hospitals began to experience a serious shortage of intravenous saline solutions, caused mainly by a spike in demand during the beginning of the 2013 flu season. Fast forward to May, and hospitals are still struggling with the shortage.
New research suggests that accountable care organizations should make payments to patient-centered medical homes or take other steps to support them financially, since their goals are similarly transformative.
Medicare's accountable care organizations have gotten off to a mixed start, with hospital-led ACOs especially reporting financial challenges. By contrast, physician-led ACOs may have built-in advantages, and could be a new source of competition.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced the first group of prospective winners of its Health Care Innovation Awards. The winners could receive receive $2 million to $18 million each over three years for trying innovative care models.
With the Massachusetts Attorney General granting Partners Healthcare System a long-term lease on life as the dominant provider in Eastern Massachusetts, it's almost certain that the state and its residents will continue to pay above-average healthcare costs.
Hospital ownership of physician practices appears to lead to statistically and economically significant increases in hospital prices and spending, according to a recent study published in Health Affairs. But that doesn't mean providers should retreat from integration and tighter alignment.
Disasters, natural and man-made, threaten more than hospital property. With many healthcare information technology systems integrated and focused on patient care, the threat of an IT or communications shutdown can be both dangerous to patients and costly to the health system.
Hospitals confront extraordinary challenges in the aftermath of a natural disaster. These risks seem to have enlarged in recent years, and can shut down hospital operations, temporarily or entirely. Consequently, many hospitals have upgraded their business continuity planning.