Chris Nerney

For many Americans, the ACA open enrollment period offers them an opportunity to have health insurance for the first time. But for hospitals and healthcare organizations, ACA open enrollments create financial and operational challenges.

Most hospitals already have in place plans to cope with disasters such as tornadoes and plane crashes, but the Ebola virus presents a different challenge. Because of the risk and expense involved, a hospital's CFO should be an integral part of Ebola planning and preparation efforts.

A number of hospitals are getting into the surgery center business as inpatient surgery cases continue to decline. For hospital CFOs contemplating a surgery center acquisition, there are a number of considerations to take into account.

More than 80 percent of hospitals in the U.S. expect to be engaging in sustainability purchasing within two years, according to a recent survey. For the hospitals that expect to jump on the green bandwagon, there's a lot to learn.

Like healthcare facilities across the country, Louisiana's hospitals must confront formidable financial challenges as care delivery models evolve and reimbursement mechanisms change.

Significant inpatient pricing variation between hospitals in the state of Washington is "putting some consumers at financial risk," according to a recent study by the Washington Health Alliance. But the state's hospitals are questioning the report's conclusions, claiming that price variation should not be surprising.

Rising interest rates and regulatory oversight will be the top challenges confronting the senior care industry over the next year, according to a new survey of housing and care providers. But industry leaders feel good about a stronger business performance outlook.

While reducing reliance on expensive inpatient care is a sensible goal for hospitals, the transition away from a bricks-and-mortar, fee-for-service model is creating tremendous pressures on chief financial officers.

Seismic changes altering the healthcare industry are creating an increasing number of compliance requirements for hospitals and health systems to meet. This means a larger role for an organization's chief compliance officer.

The "consumerization" of healthcare is helping to shape trends in healthcare real estate by contributing to significantly less hospital usage in certain regions of the United States.