SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
To navigate carefully through today's rough healthcare waters, healthcare financial managers need to: Plan for the unexpected. Realize that technology alone is not a solution. Refrain from being overconfident
One of the largest costs in healthcare organizations is labor. As volume of activity fluctuates, the labor supply needs to be adjusted appropriately. Having an appropriate quantity and skill mix of full- and part-time employees affects labor costs per hour and labor efficiency, two labor-cost control points that department managers need to monitor to make effective hiring decisions. Managers can use software applications for operating budgets, productivity monitoring, position control, and staffing/scheduling to manage labor expenses. Knowing the type of information each of these cost-control tools provides is critical to making effective decisions related to labor expenses. Because of their unique expertise, healthcare financial managers can serve as a resource to help the organization's department managers manage labor costs.
To understand better the financial management practices and strategies of modern health care organizations, we conducted interviews with chief financial officers (CFOs) of several leading health care systems. The constraints imposed on health care systems by both capital and product markets has made the role of the CFO a challenge.
Compliance officers and financial managers should forge an alliance to ensure their organization's ethics and integrity. Many financial and compliance issues stem from clinical research. Billing for experimental devices must follow specific rules, especially when payment is from Medicare. The charge description master should receive detailed attention to improve efficiency and net revenues. Violations of protected health information can have serious financial implications.
Financial managers faced with the task of recommending whether diversified services should be dissolved or continued need a logical means of analysis. Their evaluations should consider not only the venture's financial results but concerns specific to the hospital and its market, as well as related social and legal issues. Failure analysis, a function of business portfolio management, helps put these variables in perspective and provides a framework for decision making.
The Board of Trustees, officers and staff remain committed to meeting the goals of the Association and the priorities as set forth by the House of Delegates within the approved budget of the Association. A review of 1986 actual budget performance has led to certain revisions of 1987 revenue projections and implementation of expense savings to assure sound financial management.
It is hard to say which issues are the most pressing in U.S. heath care today. They all demand attention, and most of them, in one guise or another, have been significant for many years. There are 10, however, that are of particular importance in 2005: the revenue cycle, legislation and federal regulations, uninsured and charity care policies and procedures, denials management, technology, cost analysis and management, trends in commercial payment practices, the pricing of health care, planning for--and access to--capital, and financial reporting. At the start of this new year, it is important to know why those issues are of particular concern to you as a healthcare financial manager, and how you should be thinking about them.
When the term "electronic data interchange" (EDI) was first introduced, it referred to purchase orders, electronic claims, and electronic remittance processing. Those EDI applications are becoming commonplace now, however, and new applications for EDI technology are being developed. Healthcare financial managers should expect that the electronic data highways used for claims traffic eventually will transport both financial and clinical information. These electronic exchanges will not only be between payers and providers but also between hospitals, laboratories, physicians, and allied health professionals. The name commonly given to this view of an electronically linked healthcare world is the community healthcare information network (CHIN).
Although physician support programs have gained in popularity in recent years, organizations must be careful to select the most effective mix of physician relations programs. A healthcare financial manager can help create a productive physician alliance program by analyzing physicians as strategic business units, providing financial and analytical support for program assessment, screening programs for legal risks, and assessing an alliance program's risks in terms of antifraud and abuse legislation, tax laws, and private inurement issues.
This article discusses techniques that healthcare financial managers can use to interpret and evaluate information from the statement of cash flows for more effective financial decision-making. The use of these techniques as a basis for systematically planning and controlling cash flows has the potential to benefit all healthcare organizations.
One of the major complaints often voiced by healthcare organization administrators is that physicians do not seem to cooperate when it comes to reducing costs. This article presents several techniques designed to involve medical staff more actively in the financial management of a healthcare facility.
Not-for-profit healthcare organizations are experiencing a tightened credit market due to financial stresses on the healthcare industry such as declining payments, effects of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and the shift to outpatient care. In the future, healthcare organizations wanting to access the capital market will be expected to preserve cash as an "insurance policy," offer greater security and stricter covenants, and report financial information on a quarterly basis. To meet these requirements and navigate today's tighter credit market, healthcare financial managers will need to focus on the organization's most reliably profitable areas of business, link strategic and financial issues, and carefully monitor the balance sheet.
Chief nurse executives face staggering financial responsibility. Findings indicate a variety of processes are used to administer budgets in excess of $14 million. On-the-job experience, instead of formal education, is the major means of acquiring expertise in financial management.
Precise statistical budgeting remains an underused cost-control technique in healthcare organizations, despite the increasing need for such techniques resulting from national movement toward prospective pricing and managed care. As revenues are capped, the use of precise case-mix based statistical budgeting to reduce unit costs has become one of the few strategies available to financial managers to assure profitability. The use of personal computers with database and spreadsheet software can facilitate effective case-mix based budgeting.
Risk segmentation of self-pay accounts can help healthcare financial managers determine where to use collection resources. Assessment of self-pay patients should consider each patient's estimated financial condition and potential eligibility for charity care of public assistance patients. Segmenting patients on the basis of demographic variances and potential fraud can help hospitals increase self-pay collections and reduce A/R days.
Using installment plans as a method of reimbursement for healthcare services can be a preferred, though sometimes controversial, option for many healthcare facilities. The following is an overview of what healthcare financial managers should look for in choosing an installment plan.
Advanced practice nurses (APNs) are well prepared for patient care, but not for the financial aspects of clinical practice. A lack of reimbursement knowledge and skills limits the prospects for APNs to be key players in business and practice ventures. Faculty are challenged to strengthen the advanced practice reimbursement component of the financial management core to promote the reimbursement competency of APNs. The author discusses 4 primary content categories that are critical to financial success in clinical practice.
This article shows medical groups how they can employ new financial management and information technology techniques to safeguard their revenue and income streams. These managerial techniques stem from the application of the medical group revenue function, which is defined herein. This article also describes how the medical group revenue function can be used to create value by employing a database and a decision support system. Finally, the article describes how the decision support system can be used to create competitive advantage. Through the wise use of internally generated information, medical groups can negotiate better contract terms, improve their operations, cut their costs, embark on capital investment programs and improve market share. As medical groups gain market power by improving in these areas, they will be more attractive to potential strategic allies, payers and investment bankers.