Healthcare leaders must be proactive and clever about eliminating waste in healthcare processes, fixing those that contribute to inefficiencies in their organizations while simultaneously gaining money.
Thursday, June 6, 2019

Find the Hidden Dollars in Your Hospital (Without Reducing Labor)

It's not easy for hospitals and health systems to bring in more money, let alone understand where they are losing it.

For the May/June issue of HealthLeaders magazine, I spoke with several healthcare executives who shared cost-cutting ideas that don't include reducing labor. These ideas include a clinical-based approach, a financial fix, and a hybrid solution, all of which help healthcare organizations find those hidden dollars.

Survey time: I'm always looking for new ways to improve on how I deliver information that assists you in overcoming the most pressing financial challenges. Please take a few minutes to complete this quick survey about financial leadership content and enter for chance to win a free prize.

Another important reminder: Our 2019 CFO Exchange held at the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin from August 7 - 9, is getting closer! 

If you're the CFO of a health system and interested in attending, follow the link here for an invitation. 
 

lead story
Find the Hidden Dollars in Your Hospital (Without Reducing Labor)
Healthcare leaders must be proactive and clever about eliminating waste in healthcare processes, fixing those that contribute to inefficiencies in their organizations while simultaneously gaining money.
 
 
analysis
Supreme Court Sides With Hospitals in Multi-Billion-Dollar DSH Formula Dispute
  • A change that HHS made in 2014 'dramatically' reduced payments to hospitals serving low-income patients.
     
  • The government made the change without formal notice-and-comment rulemaking.
     
  • Seven of the justices agreed that HHS was statutorily required to go through the rulemaking process.
revenue cycle
'Network Matching' Offers Surprise Billing Solution
  • Requiring across-the-board health plan contracting from providers would eliminate most out-of-network billing, researchers say.
     
  • Revenue Cycle Editor Alexandra Wilson Pecci writes that one solution for curbing out-of-network billing is eliminating the possibility that a provider might be out of network in the first place.
     
  • You should also sign up for the Revenue Cycle newsletter for the latest news as well as trends from the world of revenue cycle.
Sponsored
New Fact File: Reducing Operating Room Supply Costs
Download Now!
analysis
Physician Compensation Rises Across Most Specialties
  • Between 2017 and 2018, compensation for specialty physicians increased 4.4%, according to a new MGMA study.
     
  • Emergency medicine physicians experienced the largest growth in guaranteed compensation for new hires.
     
  • Geographically, the midwest and south led the way for physician compensation in 2018.
analysis
Bon Secours Mercy to Sell 51% Stake in Ensemble RCM Subsidiary
  • Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health will keep its partnership with Ensemble, and will hold minority owner status, with a seat on the company's board.
     
  • Ensemble will keep its management team, including founder and CEO Judson Ivy, and its headquarters will remain in Mason, Ohio.
     
  • Bon Secours CEO John M. Starcher, Jr., said the proceeds from the sale will be invested back into the communities it serves.
analysis
CommonSpirit Ends Q1 With $100M Net Loss
  • The merged system of Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives also saw total revenues decline by nearly $60 million.
     
  • While Commonspirit managed total other income of $613 million, well above $90 million posted in Q1 2018, excess of revenues over expenses attributable rose $287 million year-over-year.
     
  • For the quarter, CommonSpirit's total expenses rose to $7.3 billion, as net assets reached $15.4 billion, up more than $500 million from the start of the year.
CFO Roundtable
Nonprofit Providers Rely on Financial Discipline to Sustain Success
  • Editor's note: This article is based on a roundtable discussion report sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The full report is available as a free download.
     
  • In order to navigate shrinking operating margins, financial executives at health systems must institute expense control strategies while also driving consistent revenue growth.
analysis
Immigrants Comprise More Than 18% of Healthcare Workers
  • Healthcare executives will be pressed to ensure that the more than 3 million immigrant healthcare workers remain available.
     
  • Compared to their native born counterparts, immigrant healthcare workers are typically older and work longer, later shifts, according to the study.
     
  • Leah Zallman, director of research at the Institute for Community Health and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said executives ought to be "scared about the availability of this type of workforce going forward."
analysis
Atrium Health Invests $10M in Affordable Housing Plan
  • The Charlotte-based health system continues to push for care improvement by addressing the social determinants of health.
     
  • Atrium Health CEO Eugene A. Woods: "This is what our mission of health, hope and healing is all about."
     
  • Despite the collapse of its merger plans with UNC Health Care last spring, Atrium has remained active pursuing business partnerships

 
 
 

Must Reads
 

Final Notes

Two additional stories: a Dignity Health hospital in Arizona was dinged for inaccurate wage data and Anthem is expanding its behavioral health services by acquiring Boston-based Beacon Health Options. 

If you have any tips, story ideas, thoughts, calendar items, press releases, criticisms, corrections, or general advice, send them my way at jobrien@healthleadersmedia.com.

If email isn't your thing, follow me on Twitter at @imjackobrien, (along with the official HealthLeaders account, @HealthLeaders), or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues about our weekly newsletter, they can sign up for free by following this link.

I will see all of you on June 13, just before Father's Day!

That's all, folks.

Jack O'Brien
Finance Editor