Vacillation isn’t an Option
If you have been reading any newspaper, magazine or have been watching the TV news over the last few weeks you can’t miss the headline, “Healthcare Reform on the Way”. However, what the media doesn’t tell you is that no matter what form healthcare reform takes each proposal now before Congress “will require providers to radically restructure the way they interact with other providers and control cost. Facilities will be best served by preparing now. Those that wait risk their facility’s financial health through reduced payments and lower volumes.” is the prediction of Hospital Financial Management Magazine.
The best case scenario for healthcare reform is that the Feds will attack the cost of readmissions within 30 days of discharge by disallowing reimbursement, bundle inpatient and outpatient charges at a lower rate, and expand their pilot gain sharing program to all qualified providers who can meet seven stringent participation criteria. The worse case scenario is that the Feds will dramatically reduce your hospital’s already meager Medicare payments, which has been already proposed.
With this said, I don’t think this is a time when you should take a “wait and see attitude” since vacillation isn’t an option. It’s safe to say that some form of healthcare reform is on the way and to pay for it the Feds will need to take more dollars from your healthcare organization’s budget to make it work. That’s why even more rigorous cost management should be the order of the day for all healthcare organizations. To do less is to risk getting caught asleep at the wheel while your competitors sail through this impending historic financial disruption without missing a beat.
Comments
Leave a Reply
