At the Becker's Hospital Review CEO Strategy Roundtable in Chicago on Nov. 5, Amber McGraw Walsh, JD, partner with McGuireWoods, moderated a panel on the biggest goals hospital CFOs have for the coming year.
Primary care
Hospital acquisitions of physician practices have made headlines for quite some time. This strategy will continue into the new year. "We viewed the hospital as the center of the universe, but now we are trying to put primary care in the middle of this," said Donald Longpre, CFO of North Ottawa Community Health System. "We are trying to recruit primary care providers and drive services to our hospital. We're looking at patterns of care and working to reduce leakage."
As hospital leaders look for ways reduce leakage and bring patients under their scope of care, they must realize the market is shifting away from the time of passive patients to active consumers. "It is having a profound impact. Consumerism is slowly, but surely taking hold," said Michael T. Horton, FSA, EA, FCA, MAAA, Retirement Practice Leaders, Towers Watson.
Bad debt reduction
Bad debt is a significant issue for hospital CFOs. North Ottawa Community Health System partnered with a pre-collection and collection agency to capture coinsurance and co-pays across all sites of service. Patient payments increased 10 percent to 15 percent as a result. "We've had a similar experience. Bad debt with patient insurance rose in our write-offs, so we modified our financial clearance policy," said Harry Reese, vice president and CFO of Ochsner Health System. "Our point-of-service collections have gone up 22 percent."
Cost containment
Cost containment has always been a lynchpin of CFO strategy, but it only grows in importance as overhead costs continue to rise. "CFOs are increasing process efficiency, reducing costs by renegotiating with suppliers and delaying capital projects," said Mark D. Tambussi, senior vice president, national manager, Healthcare Equipment Finance, PNC Equipment Finance.