Financial Oversight
Reducing readmissions is an important way to improve quality and lower health care spending, and hospitals are making significant progress. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported that the national readmission rate (i.e., instances when patients return to the same or different…
An operational indicator used by financial analysts, this ratio is a measure of how efficiently hospital assets are converted to revenue. The ratio’s numerator is net patient revenue plus total other income, and the denominator is total assets. A higher ratio is generally viewed as a positive…
SNAPSHOT Stand-alone, nonprofit hospitals seem to bear the brunt of an unfavorable financial climate. These tactics, which include assessing services, sizing up leaders and improving documentation, can protect hospitals and shield trustees from individual liability.
Hospitals may see an uptick in giving in the next year and a half, according to predictions from “Philanthropy Outlook: 2015 & 2016.” The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy report predicts that total giving will increase by 4.8 percent in 2015 and 4.9 percent in…
Incentive compensation plans are intended to focus executives’ attention on their organizations’ most vital priorities and initiatives. As health care organizations revise their business strategies to address the ongoing transformation of care delivery and payment, health care boards…
Hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) treat sicker and poorer patients than do physician offices, according to a new study. Prepared for the American Hospital Association, the study aimed to determine whether there were differences in patient demographics or care between HOPDs and physician…
Snapshot Faced with growing financial responsibility for their health care, individuals are behaving more like consumers when making care decisions. They want more information, more convenience and better service than many hospitals currently provide. Forward-thinking health systems already are…
Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, Md., has done something every hospital in America wants to do. “We decreased readmissions [from skilled nursing facilities] by 24 percent across the entire county,” says Andrea Horton, director of care management for the community hospital. “…
Should hospital and health system trustees be compensated? Increasingly, organizations are asking this question as they recruit candidates with specific areas of expertise to address the complex financial and quality challenges that they face.
Hiring and retaining the right hospital leaders and ensuring that they achieve the organization’s goals are among the board’s most important functions, and executive compensation plays a major role in the success of those efforts. However, preconceived notions about executive…