October 2015 Issue of Becker's Hospital Review

On the Cover

EXECUTIVE EXCLUSIVES  Success in the 'gray zone': Ascension Health CFO Rhonda Anderson on transitioning into a new healthcare model As the healthcare industry shifts away from the fee-for-service model and into a value-based one, hospital and health system CFOs are faced with a complicated task — making the best financial decisions for their organizations with one foot in the old model and one in the new. Click here to continue >> Boston Medical Center CEO Kate Walsh on Her Best Boss and Cure for Busyness Despite her jam-packed schedule, Boston Medical Center CEO Kate Walsh seeks to combat the busyness of the healthcare field. Click here to Continue >> American Diabetes Association CEO Kevin Hagan on 'a Big, Real American Problem' The American Diabetes Association's new CEO Kevin L. Hagan has a message for America's healthcare providers: Diabetes is an escalating crisis in our country and it is putting a serious burden on our healthcare system. Click here to Continue >> Chuck Lauer: A Thank-You to Gatekeepers Who Protect the Boss Many people don't understand the crucial role executive assistants play. Click here to Continue >> The Corner Office: Cook County Health's Dr. John Jay Shannon on the 'National Embarrassment' of Healthcare Disparities "For the wealthiest country in the world...to not have figured out access to basic healthcare as a fundamental right for individuals, I think is a little bit of a national embarrassment." Click here to Continue >>

Strategy and Innovation

Hospital Innovation Centers Think Outside the Box to Solve Healthcare's Biggest Problems
When people think of creative professions, jobs in the healthcare industry are probably not the first to come to mind.Click here to Continue >>

The Art of Stopping: When Innovating Means Hitting the Breaks
Most people understand innovation as starting something new. Click here to Continue >>

Doing More With Less: Strategies for Competing on Price, Quality and Both at the Same Time
With the shift from fee-for-service medicine, hospitals and health systems across the nation are asked to perform a highwire act — to compete on price and improve the quality of care they provide while facing reimbursement cuts. Click here to Continue >>

Executive Roundtable: Bundling for the Best: Notes From the Field on Bundled Payment Design and Implementation
Though hip and knee replacements are among the most common surgeries for Medicare beneficiaries, the quality and cost of care for these surgeries vary immensely between providers. Click here to Continue >>

Pain Points of Innovation: It Take More Than a Good Idea
Innovation is the name of the game, and everyone wants to play. Click here to Continue >> 

Here's an Idea: Ask Nurses How Your Hospital Can Do Better
When it comes to innovation, every hospital has nurses who know the right thing to do. Click here to Continue >>

Teaming Up: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Sports and Healthcare
The roar of the crowd, the taste of a hotdog, the joy you feel when your favorite player scores a touchdown, home run or slam dunk — these are sensations millions of Americans have collected in their consciousnesses (since 2000, an average of 60 percent of Americans describe themselves as sports fans when asked, according to years of Gallup polls). Click here to Continue >>

25 Companies Disrupting Healthcare Today 
Healthcare is ripe with opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs. Mobile health, sophisticated consumer expectations, data transparency and preference for on-demand services at a flat fee have ushered in a class of companies that resist the status quo. Click here to Continue >>

Finance

40 Financial Benchmarks for Hospital Executives40 Financial Benchmarks for Hospital Executives
Here are 40 benchmarks related to one of the most important day-to-day areas hospital executives oversee — finance.  Click here to Continue >>

CBO: Federal Healthcare Spending Will Reach 6.2% of GDP by 2025
Federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and health insurance exchange subsides will rise to 6.2 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2025, up from 5.2 percent this year, according to budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office. Click here to Continue >>

Moody's Revises Outlook for Nonprofit Healthcare to Stable From Negative
Moody's Investors Service has revised the outlook for the U.S. nonprofit and public healthcare sector to stable from negative. Click here to Continue >>

Hospitals Have 58% Overturn Rate When Appealing RAC Claims
Hospitals appealed 49 percent of all Recovery Audit Contractor claim denials in the second quarter of 2015, with 58 percent of those claim denials being overturned in the appeals process, according to the American Hospital Association's second-quarter RACTrac survey. Click here to Continue >>

Kansas Hospital to Close This Month
Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy health system has announced it will close Mercy Hospital Independence (Kan.) next month, according to a KTUL report. Click here to Continue >>

Illinois Hospital to Close, Replaced with Outpatient Center
Springfield, Ill.-based Hospital Sisters Health System is discontinuing healthcare services at St. Mary's Hospital in Streator, Ill., and transferring ownership of the hospital and its related facilities to Peoria, Ill.-based OSF Healthcare System. Click here to Continue >>

2 Georgia Systems Roll Out Massive Merger Plans: 5 Things to Know
Two Georgia health systems — Northside Hospital and Gwinnett Medical Center — are exploring amerger to create a combined system that would have nearly 1,400 beds, more than 16,000 employees and nearly 3,500 physicians on staff. Click here to Continue >>

AMA: Insurer Mergers Would Hurt Competition in 154 Metro Areas
The American Medical Association released a study today finding the proposed Anthem-Cigna and Aetna-Humana mergers could lessen competition in up to 154 metropolitan areas across 23 states. Click here to Continue >>

10 States With Least Competitive Commercial Health Insurance Markets
The American Medical Association released its latest analysis of competition in health insurance markets in all states and Washington, D.C. Click here to continue >>

ICD-10 Aftershocks: 4 Challenges Every CFO Can Expect
If any individual in the C-suite will feel the effects of ICD-10 most prominently, it will be the hospital CFO. Click here to Continue >>

Deconstructing the Enigmatic Hospital Chargemaster
Patients struggle to understand healthcare costs, but the process of setting costs and charging for services rendered can be complex enough to confound industry experts. Click here to Continue >>

50 Critical Access Hospital CEOs to Know 
Becker's Hospital Review is pleased to recognize 50 hospital CEOs, presidents and administrators for their leadership of widely recognized critical access hospitals. Click here to Continue >>

Care Delivery

2014 Medicare ACOs: 10 Things to Know About Their Quality, Financial Results2014 Medicare ACOs: 10 Things to Know About Their Quality, Financial Results
CMS announced Tuesday that 20 Pioneer and 333 Medicare Shared Savings Program accountable care organizations generated net savings of $411 million in 2014 and improved in most quality measures. Click here to Continue >>

The Latest ACO Results: 5 Leaders ReactThe Latest ACO Results: 5 Leaders React
CMS announced Tuesday that 353 Medicare accountable care organizations generated $411 million in savings in 2014 and improved in most quality measures. Click here to Continue >>

Operating in the Public Eye: Life After the Surgeon Scorecard
A database released in July arguably changed the dynamics of the surgical profession. Click here to Continue >>

What's Your Score, Star Rating, Wait Time? 5 Ways Patients Are Finding Out
Transparency is quickly becoming the name of the game in healthcare. Click here to Continue >>

100 Accountable Care Organizations to Know
Becker's Hospital Review is pleased to highlight a variety of Medicare and commercial payer ACOs, the majority of which are led by hospitals or health systems. Click here to Continue >>

Executive Briefing

Hospital Pharmacy Improvements: The Success Story of Upper Allegheny Health System
While it's been said many times that the healthcare industry is evolving as a whole, nowhere is that more true than in the world of hospital pharmacy. Click here to Continue >>

Health Information Technology

Execs Fired as Cost of Epic EHR Rollout Grows at NYC Health and HospitalsExecs Fired as Cost of Epic EHR Rollout Grows at NYC Health and Hospitals
Over the past six months, four executives of New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. have been fired while investigators probe the health system's implementation of a new EHR. Click here to Continue >>

Half of Digital Health Startups Expected to Fail Within 2 YearsHalf of Digital Health Startups Expected to Fail Within 2 Years
One out of every two digital health startups are forecasted to fail within two years of their launch, finds a new report from Accenture. Click here to Continue >>

7 Takeaways From Epic's Annual Meeting and Why The CEO Dressed as Lucille Ball
Epic Systems' annual users' group meeting kicked off Monday at its Verona, Wis., campus, with founder and CEO Judy Faulkner delivering the executive address Tuesday Click here to Continue >>

Google, Alphabet & Healthcare: 7 Things to Know About the New Conglomerate
On Monday, Google Cofounder Larry Page announced the formation of a new company called Alphabet, which will serve as the parent holding company of Google and its affiliates. Click here to Continue >>

The Vendor's View of Interoperability: Thoughts From Greenway Health's Mark Janiszewski
Health IT vendors are at a critical point when it comes to their role in interoperability. Click here to Continue >>

Why Healthcare Cyberattacks are Getting Worse
The data breach isn't new. Click here to Continue >>

7 Steps to a Clinically Integrated Network: A Roadmap for Success
One of the key aspects of successfully transitioning to value-based care is the implementation of a clinically integrated network. Click here to Continue >>

Thought Leadership

'The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done' 12 Physicians, CEOs and Nurses Recall a Tough Professional Moment
Healthcare leaders encounter challenges on a daily basis. Click here to Continue >>

The Story About a Janitor at Johns Hopkins: A Must-Read for Any Hospital Executive
All healthcare institutions proudly tout missions to provide high-quality, affordable medical care and improve the health of the communities they serve. Click here to Continue >>

EXECUTIVE MOVES 

HOSPITAL & HEALTH SYSTEM TRANSACTIONS