Workforce

Healthcare businesses added 41,000 jobs in August, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday, a huge jump compared to the previous month as hospitals, ambulatory centers and physicians offices hired thousands in the last full month of the summer.

Home health workers employed by an agency are subject to the same minimum wage and overtime pay standards as those who perform similar services in a hospital, nursing home or other setting, according to an August 21 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

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.

While the role of healthcare CFO is pretty standard from one organization to another, the role of treasurer can vary from a volunteer position to a unique function of the CFO.

One of the greatest challenges for RCM directors this summer is ensuring that the organization has enough skilled coders to handle the demands of ICD-10, which will more than quadruple the number of procedure designations required for patient documentation and payment reimbursements.

With revenue cycle staff in big demand, healthcare providers are scrambling to find candidates with this specialized type of experience before initiatives like ICD-10 and value-based payments put too much pressure on cash flow.

Successful boards spent more meeting time discussing quality and performing and held more frequent performance reviews with middle management, according to Health Affairs study.

Hospitals led with hiring, adding 15,700 jobs in the month, while ambulatory centers added 8,900 jobs, far less than the 22,000 jobs ambulatory centers added in June.

The companies said the deal will make them better able to improve their post-acute care services and create better value of care for their partner hospitals and clinicians, which in the age of value-based reimbursements will improve bottom lines for all involved.

Financial pressures are causing a growing number of U.S. doctors to leave private practice for hospital employment, according to a new report by Accenture.