Patient satisfaction assessments represent 30 percent of the bonuses and penalties given to hospitals during the first year of Medicare’s value-based purchasing, a component of the health reform law. But a new study from Johns Hopkins University suggests that patient satisfaction is not necessarily a good indicator of quality care. The study analyzed patient […]
Many hoped that Congress and the White House would negotiate a combination of revenue increases and spending cuts that would replace the federal budget sequestration that took effect April 1. Sequestration mandates approximately $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years ($85 billion over the next six months). But legislators and the Administration […]
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 […]
Deloitte Center for Health Solutions recently released results of its 2013 Survey of U.S. Physicians, and the findings suggest that physicians see value in some provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and that they have a sense that health care is moving in the right direction. The survey was sent to 20,000 physicians and […]
It seems hospitals have been in cost-cutting mode for many years, and still experts say that a significant amount of waste is inherent in our healthcare system. The healthcare environment—today and tomorrow—must find additional ways to bring down costs, and many agree that hospitals should use multiple strategies to attack different aspects of cost savings […]
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 […]
Hospitals face a 2 percent reduction in Medicare payments as early as April 1 under sequestration—this could cost hospitals $3 billion and 73,000 jobs nationwide this year, according to iVantage Health Analytics. Hospitals, physicians and other providers are hoping that Congress will put together a solution to avoid the cuts before they are actually […]
Moving to risk-bearing, performance-based contracts may be outside the current experience of many hospitals. But given the changes today and on the horizon, providers must reduce their reliance on fee-for-service payment and begin to take on value-based contracts. “ . . . all hospitals and health systems must prepare for the rapidly approaching transformation. Status […]
Transitioning from volume-based to value-based payment for care won’t happen on a specific date. Hospitals have long been paid on a volume-based payment model, and will continue to operate in that model while the new value-based payment model comes into play. Lisa Goldstein noted in a recent iProtean course that “the biggest challenge facing health […]