Accounting & Financial Management

Though supply chain professionals are keenly aware of the importance of quality and cost, their clinical counterparts may not be as familiar with an organized movement to link these two components with patient outcomes.

As cost control initiatives take on increasing weight at hospitals and health systems, organizations must focus more intently on stemming the costs of medical device procurement.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General has posted its FY 2015 Work Plan, which summaries OIG's intended legal and investigative initiatives in the coming year. Among other issues, OIG wants to expand its oversight of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.

Hospitals' struggle for financial sustainability continues and may be getting worse, as CFOs say information technology investments draw more resources than expected and threaten to crowd out other priorities.

Hospitals and health systems want to mitigate their compliance spend as much as possible, as well as reduce the odds of facing large penalties for being out of compliance. The path to lowering the costs of compliance starts with putting appropriate policies and procedures in place -- and getting the right people at the table to make that happen.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services late last week released the 2015 Physician Fee Schedule final rule, and it brings a number of changes that doctors and practice managers need to understand about chronic care management, the Medicare conversion factor and other key reimbursement issues.

It's the rare hospital that has never experienced delays in receiving reimbursement as a result of clinical documentation coding snafus. But hospitals that don't make a serious stab at clinical documentation improvement (CDI) will be poised to take an even harder hit come October 2015, the start date for ICD-10 implementation.

For-profit hospital operator LifePoint Hospitals saw its third quarter revenues increase 29 percent from the same period in 2013. The company also raised its net revenue guidance for 2014 from $4.45 billion to $4.5 billion.

While some health systems are reluctant to publish prices without reforms of insurance practices and proper context for patients, some are trying to embrace transparency as a new model. Washington State's Everett Clinic is one of those pioneers.

In the past, hospitals had one role: deliver care. But in recent years, some of the largest hospitals and health systems have assumed the financial risk of delivering care. In the past, hospitals had one role: deliver care. But in recent years, some of the largest hospitals and health systems have assumed the financial risk of delivering care.