July 2015 Issue of Becker's Hospital Review

On the Cover

	The Community Hospital Survival Guide The healthcare industry has not been kind to community hospitals over the past several years, and there is no indication that the industry will be any less cruel on these organizations during the next several years. Survival in this world will take decisive and creative action.   Click here to Continue >>
	The modern definition of a community hospital Depending on whom you ask, a community hospital could be defined in a number of different ways. Click here to Continue >>
	Behind Closed Doors: The Lesser-Known Details of Mergers of Equals Hospitals and health systems join together for a variety of reasons. Click here to Continue >>

Publisher’s Letter

Financial Management 

20 Pieces of Advice From Hospital CFOs
From changing reimbursement levels to the evolving CFO role, hospital and health system financial leaders are dealing with a number of challenges. Click here to Continue >>

CMS Unveils Overhaul to Medicaid Managed Care: 10 Key Points
CMS has unveiled a regulatory package containing the first major update to Medicaid managed care regulations in more than 10 years. Click here to Continue >>

Nonprofit Hospitals Begin to See Financial Improvement
Revenue growth and declining annual expense growth are helping paint a better financial picture for nonprofit hospitals, according to preliminary fiscal year 2014 medians for nonprofit and public hospitals from Moody's Investors Service. Click here to Continue >>

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Case: 13 Key Points
Two federal antitrust lawsuits advancing in a federal court in Alabama are alleging Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers are functioning as an illegal cartel by divvying up markets to avoid competing against one another, according to The Wall Street Journal. Click here to Continue >>

WellStar Calls Off Merger Talks With Emory
Marietta, Ga.-based WellStar Health System, the largest nonprofit system in Georgia, has scrapped plans to merge with Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare, according to an Atlanta Business Chronicle report. Click here to Continue >>

8 Hospital, Health System Layoffs Affecting 100+ Employees
The following hospital and health systems shared plans for or implemented layoffs affecting 100 or more employees in 2015 so far. Click here to Continue >>

Study Lists 50 Hospitals With Biggest Markups: 11 Things to Know
Two researchers used Medicare cost reports to find the 50 U.S. hospitals with the largest difference between charges and Medicare-allowable cost in 2012. Click here to Continue >>

Tax Breaks for Nonprofit Hospitals Soar to $24.6B: 5 Things to Know
A new study released by Health Affairs estimates tax-exempt hospitals across the nation received a collective $24.6 billion tax break in 2011, up from the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation's $12.6 billion estimate in 2002. Click here to Continue >>

CMS Pays $1.3B to Hospitals for Medicare Appeals
Making good on its offer to help clear the backlog of Medicare appeals by paying hospitals 68 percent of the net payable amount for short-term inpatient stays, CMS announced it has paid more than 1,900 hospitals approximately $1.3 billion as of June 1. Click here to Continue >>

Tenet Completes USPI, Aspen Healthcare Transactions
Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare has completed two major transactions, including its previously announced deal that will combine its ambulatory and imaging centers with those of United Surgical Partners International, which is owned by Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. Click here to Continue >>

100 Great Community Hospitals | 2015
For the purposes of this list, Becker's defines community hospital as a hospital with fewer than 550 beds and that have minimal teaching programs. Click here to Continue >>

Executive Briefing: Preserving the Physician-Patient Relationship

To Create a Positive Patient Experience in Only a Matter of Minutes, Understand What Patients Value Most

Leadership & Strategy

15 Quotes From Healthcare Executives Reporters Knew They Had to Write Down
More than 150 hospital and health system executives gathered in Chicago a few days ago to discuss their industry, organizations, strategies, challenges and passions as part of the Becker's Hospital Review 6th Annual Meeting. Click here to Continue >>

The Woman Who Runs the Oldest Hospital in America
In 1751, the United States of America had yet to be founded, skirmishes between England and France were building up to the French and Indian War, and Benjamin Franklin and a physician named Thomas Bond founded Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. Click here to Continue >>

Are Patient Satisfaction Surveys Doing More Harm Than Good?
Though the intention of patient satisfaction surveys may be altruistic, the focus on patient satisfaction and the surveys designed to measure it could actually lead to a decrease in care quality and an increase in costs, according to recent report from The Hastings Center. Click here to Continue >>

Why Are COOs on the Decline? 3 Reasons
The COO has traditionally served as the No. 2 person in the C-suite and the most likely candidate to succeed a departing CEO. However, the COO role has recently begun to dwindle. Click here to Continue >> 

Becker’s Hospital Review CEO Roundtable + CFO/CIO Roundtable brochure

Executive Briefing: Strengthening the Medical Staff Services Department

Outsourcing as a Solution to Your Credentialing Woes

Revenue Cycle

Revamping Hospital RCM With Outsourcing, Insourcing or Something In-Between
Hospital billing is more complex than ever, and in a healthcare environment focused on improving quality while reducing costs, it is going to become increasingly more important for hospitals to optimize revenue cycle management. Click here to Continue >>

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Outsources 340 RCM Division Jobs
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., is outsourcing approximately 340 jobs from its revenue cycle management division to Tenet Healthcare, according to a Valley News report. Click here to Continue >>

14 Hospitals, Health Systems Recognized for Revenue Cycle Performance
The Healthcare Financial Management Association recently announced the 2015 winners of the MAP Award for High Performance in Revenue Cycle. Click here to Continue >>

Premier Launches System to Track Financial Impact of Value-Based Care
Premier, based in Charlotte, N.C., has launched the Premier Quality Cycle Management system, a software-as-a-service analytics platform. Click here to Continue >>

70% of Physician Practices Have Yet to Settle on RCM Technology
The majority of solo and small physician practices, 70 percent, have yet to find a technology suite for billing, claims, meaningful use and usability that satisfies expectations, according to the 2015 Black Book Survey. Click here to Continue >>

Executive Briefing: Future of the Nurse Workforce

Hospitals and Nursing Schools: A Symbiotic Relationship
The Institute of Medicine set a goal in its 2010 report The Future of Nursing: To have 80 percent of registered nurses hold a bachelor's degree or higher by 2020. Click here to Continue >>

Physician Affairs

3 Physicians From America’s Tiniest Towns Talk Patient Relationships, Rural Practice and the State of Healthcare

10 Medical Schools With Highest Student Debt
By the time the average medical student finishes medical school, they have accrued quite a bit of debt. Click here to Continue >>

Why is This Medical School Trying to Lure English Majors?
Half of each incoming class at New York City-based Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai will soon be nontraditional medical students — students who didn't take the MCAT and who studied humanities in college. Click here to Continue >>

11 Things to Know About the MSSP ACO Final Rule
CMS released its final rule for accountable care organizations under the Medicare Shared Savings Program Thursday. Click here to Continue >>
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/accountable-care-organizations/11-things-to-know-about-the-mssp-aco-final-rule.html

Leavitt Partners, Brookings Institution Join for World’s Largest ACO Collaborative
Two accountable care consulting powerhouses — Leavitt Partners and the Brookings Institution — announced a merger Thursday that will result in the largest accountable care collaborative in the world, chaired by former HHS Secretary Gov. Mike Leavitt and former CMS Administrator and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark McClellan, MD, PhD. Click here to Continue >>

30 ACOs With the Largest Physician Networks
Due to increased interest and consolidation in the value-based care space, accountable care organizations are growing rapidly. Click here to Continue >>

Health IT

Dear Hacker: Here is Your Invitation to Attack Our Network
The last thing a healthcare IT, security or privacy officer wants to do is send an open invitation to hackers to infiltrate their systems. Click here to Continue >>

Partners HealthCare Launches Epic EHR for $1.2B
This weekend, Boston-based Partners HealthCare launched what is its biggest single investment to date — a $1.2 billion information technology system, according to The Boston Globe. Click here to Continue >>

The Money Pit: Healthcare Spends Billions to Defend the IT That Cost Billions to Install

Epic’s Judy Faulkner Pledges 99% of Her Wealth to Philanthropy
In 2010, Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates launched the Giving Pledge, a platform for some of the world's wealthiest people to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Click here to Continue >>

Former Hospital CFO Receives 23-Month Sentence for Lying About Meaningful Use
Center, Texas-based Shelby Regional Medical Center's former CFO, Joe White, has been sentenced to 23 months in federal prison for his role in a healthcare fraud scheme, according to a KTRE report. Click here to Continue >>

EHRs and Physician Satisfaction: 10 Things to Know
Black Book Rankings has revealed the results of a sweeping four-month survey to find which EHR and EMR software systems are meeting the needs of physicians the most in 2015. Click here to Continue >>

Opinion

Interoperability is an Ethical Issue

Thought Leadership

Protectionism is Not a Strategy
A new analysis shows the incredible speed and intensity of Uber's encroachment on the traditional taxi industry. Click here to Continue >>

A Champion of Sport — and Life
During a long life full of travel and meeting untold thousands of people, I have had the honor of speaking with a handful of individuals whose life stories have truly inspired me. Click here to Continue >>

The Corner Office: Temple Health’s Dr. Larry Kaiser on Knowledge of Wine and Healthcare
Even though Larry Kaiser, MD, holds multiple leadership roles — he's the president and CEO of Philadelphia-based Temple University Health System, senior executive vice president for health affairs and dean of Temple University School of Medicine — he still finds time to practice medicine. Click here to Continue >>

Hospital & Health System Executive Moves

Hospital & Health System Transactions