As the healthcare industry migrates toward a value-based payment system, with risk-based models like bundled payments gaining speed, it is vital for hospitals and health systems to reduce costs. However, without knowing what their costs are to start with, many healthcare organizations see their cost-cutting efforts fail.
Whether relying on inaccurate cost data or using data that is too limited in scope, there are a number of missteps that can cause a healthcare organization's cost containment efforts to flounder. Advanced cost accounting software can help organizations reach their cost reduction goals, but not without new ways of thinking.
Cost accounting is a team sport, which requires expertise from across the organization, including physicians. Physicians care about reducing costs and need to be engaged in the process. One way to engage physicians is simply sharing cost data with them on a comparative basis. If a physician has a high cost per case and sees other physicians performing the same procedures for much lower cost, the high-cost physician can at least begin to start the conversation on what is driving the variance and what it would take to bring costs down.
Please join a distinguished panel for an interactive discussion about the new conversation on cost and the benefits of having access to accurate cost data during a July 27 webinar sponsored by Strata Decision Technology. The featured speakers will discuss steps healthcare organizations can take to implement a successful cost reduction strategy and the importance of sharing cost data among clinicians and physicians.
Panelists include Dan Michelson, CEO of Strata Decision Technology, and Neel Shah, MD, MPP, assistant director of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.
To register for the webinar, click here.