As a board member, you may consider cybersecurity to be an operational issue for senior management and the IT department, but experts say, “its weighty implications for the entire organization now require directors to consider it as a critical risk management concern” that requires trustees to play an active role its oversight. 2015 has […]
Marian C. Jennings, M.B.A. and Jennifer Swartz, B.A. Many hospitals and health systems envision and embrace a future of population health management but face the challenge of “when to flip the switch from volume to value.” Today, more effectively managing congestive heart patients may be the right thing to do, but it may negatively […]
Not-for-profit hospitals and health systems healthcare medians for 2014 show improved profitability margins with balance sheet measures continuing their favorable trajectory, according to Moody’s Investors Service report on final medians for 2014. The median highlights include: Median annual revenue growth rate surpassed median expense growth rate by a wide margin in 2014. Median […]
Hospitals have added about 134,000 jobs in the last 12 months, according to seasonally adjusted figures in the monthly labor report for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. August employment grew by 16,000 workers, following July’s increase of 5,000 workers. The healthcare sector in total added 41,000 jobs in August. Of these, a little more […]
Note: iProtean will take a short holiday over the Labor Day weekend. Look for the next post on September 9. Things appear to be looking up for U.S. hospitals and health systems. Moody’s Investors Service has revised the outlook for business conditions from negative to stable, signaling “an expectation of aggregate improvement despite continued […]
Mortality rates decreased among patients admitted for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), congestive heart failure (CHF), stroke and pneumonia from 2002 to 2012, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The decline occurred for both men and women, and for Medicare-aged and younger patients. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) […]
Last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it will extend the enforcement delay of its two-midnight policy until December 31, 2015. Beginning January 1, 2016, Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) and Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) “will conduct patient status reviews in accordance with any policy changes finalized in the outpatient prospective payment […]
Medicare’s inpatient prospective payments (IPPS) will increase 0.9 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2016, down from the projected 1.1 percent increase noted by CMS in April this year. Capital payments also will increase by 2.3 percent in FY 2016. The final rule was released July 31 and will take effect October 1. According to […]
Authors of a new study speculate that combined improvements in health, patient utilization patterns for health care, and healthcare delivery have dramatically reduced hospital utilization and per-beneficiary spending, while mortality declined among all Medicare fee-for-service enrollees, over the last 15 years. The research was published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association and […]
Primary care physicians in accountable care organization (ACO) practices, on average, received similar compensation arrangements to those of physicians not in ACOs, and did not have substantial risk for primary care costs, according to a study published in the Annals of Family Medicine and reported in HFMA Weekly News. On average, compensation for ACO […]