Although many hospitals/systems currently may be evaluating whether to acquire or merge with another organization, a recent report notes that only about 10 percent of community hospitals (approximately 551 hospitals) have been a part of a merger or acquisition transaction from 2007 and 2012. (“AHA Report Says Hospital Mergers Don’t Harm Competition,” Health Lawyers Weekly, […]
The shift to value-based purchasing and away from reimbursement based on volume requires hospitals and health systems to transform their processes and capitalize on opportunities in the changing competitive landscape. The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) calls this “strategic agility” and recently released an educational report that identifies characteristics of strategic agility. (Heeding the Call […]
“Healthcare reform is a federal mandate to replace an antiquated and unsustainable reimbursement system with a more rational payment system based on value,” writes Lisa Goldstein from Moody’s Investors Service in a recent Special Comment, Not-for-Profit Hospitals: The Pursuit of Value. Ms. Goldstein, an iProtean expert featured in many foundational and advanced iProtean courses, presents […]
(Note: for an update to last week’s blog, Health Spending and the Economy, please check our Facebook page.) The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officially issued proposed regulations in early April addressing the requirement under Section 501(r)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that tax-exempt hospitals conduct community health needs assessments. The proposed regulations also provide […]
For this week’s blog post, we feature a recent update from DGA Partners in its New + Noteworthy feature. Dan Grauman, President & CEO of DGA Partners, appears in many of iProtean’s Finance and Mission & Strategy courses. We are on the road interviewing experts for several new advanced courses: Governance of Integrated Care […]
Blog submission by Jeffrey Bauer, Ph.D., an independent consultant and speaker based in Chicago. Strategic planning has grown in importance since my previous iProtean post addressed the topic (Back to the Future, August 2012). Today, the future of health care in general and hospitals in particular looks even less like an extension of the past […]
Since the passage of health reform, hospitals have increasingly been focused on antitrust liability coverage. Most, if not all, hospitals have had concerns about regulatory oversight even before health reform, but those concerns have heightened in response to “ambiguity on how the regulators will address antitrust exposures . . . more and more risk managers […]
What steps should a high-performing but small hospital take to assess a possible partnership or merger; should the board bring in a consultant or do this on its own? How can a public hospital secure needed capital when its city owner is disinterested at best, obstructionist at worst? How can a hospital secure the loyalty […]
The times are such that it makes sense for a board to review its ability to remain independent on a regular basis—every quarter, every six months, for example. Dan Grauman from DGA Partners recommends the use of an independence dashboard for the board’s use. This dashboard serves a tool to evaluate the organization’s position as […]
The number of hospitals involved in mergers has increased 62% since 2009. Because of the costs of providing quality health care and additional regulations from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), stand-alone hospitals have been incentivized to merge with larger hospital systems to cut costs and increase profitability. “Notwithstanding these merger-rich conditions, the Federal Trade Commission […]