Joseph Burns has been covering healthcare since 1991 and is the health insurance topic leader for the Association of Health Care Journalists. He writes about health policy and the business of healthcare for a variety of publications.
Hospitals of all sizes are looking for partners. But the quest to increase market share by acquiring physician groups or other hospitals is drawing critical analysis from regulators, particularly if a merger results in eliminating a competitor.
Last week's ruling in the case of ProMedica Health System vs. the Federal Trade Commission offers key lessons for CFOs about how hospitals and health systems should proceed with mergers or acquisitions.
As Oregon transforms how it delivers care to 780,000 Medicaid patients, it hopes to generate better outcomes at lower costs. The problem for Oregon hospitals is that these goals conflict with the traditional aim of boosting revenue through ER visits and inpatient stays.
In 2007, BCBS of Massachusetts asked Lowell General Hospital to accept a monthly capitated payment to care for its HMO members. The hospital simultaneously saw the potential and recognized the risks.
Across the U.S., hospital costs are rising while revenue and patient volume are falling. Rural not-for-profit hospitals, in particular, face a challenging financial future, one in which some facilities might close or at least "go hungry."
All the talk about moving healthcare reimbursement from volume to value sounds great, in theory. But how this shift takes place in practice is more complex than simply ending one form of payment and starting a new one.