Accounting & Financial Management

While not as prevalent as they once were, healthcare pension plans still represent a significant fiduciary obligation.

While every financial metric carries importance in running a healthcare business, tighter margins means managing days in accounts receivable is becoming more important than ever.

As the clinical-financial relationship tightens, hospitals may want to consider whether they have appropriately organized their staffing roles and relationships to take the greatest advantage of the trend.

For many hospitals and healthcare centers, the CFO, the controller, and the reimbursement manager - form the new 'trinity' of finance leadership.

The economic collapse in 2008 changed everything for the new CFO Amy Floria, plunging Goshen, both the city and hospital, into crisis. But smart cost management has helped the system bounce back.

Beginning in 2018, companies that offer health insurance packages the government deems too generous will start having to pay a 40 percent tax on those packages. Despite the "Cadillac" tax, Towers Watson, a consulting firm, predicts that 48 percent of employers will have to pay the tax in its first year.

According to tax and advisory firm KPMG, 74 percent of healthcare providers say they are either in the beginning stages or have not even begun to invest is systems for analytics and financial reporting.

Yale created a process that linked financial and clinical data, giving physicians access to information they didn't have before.

The best method to attract and keep consumers is to build access to points of care throughout the organization, from a hospital's retail clinic to physician offices, primary care and medical specialists, experts at HFMA 2015 ANI say.

Speakers at the Healthcare Management Association 2015 Annual Institute warn providers to embrace models like capitation, accountable care and bundled payments.