January 2016 Issue of Becker's Hospital Review

On the Cover

Publisher's Letter

 Finance

5 questions with Dr. Emad Rizk, President and CEO of Accretive Health
Emad Rizk, MD, has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, with time spent working with providers, payers and pharmaceutical organizations. Click here to continue >>

Healthcare spending hits $3 trillion under ACA: 10 things to know
Healthcare spending grew by 5.3 percent in 2014, as millions of new people with health insurance coverage under the Affordable Car Act and rapidly rising prescription drug prices drove spending upward, according to a study by CMS' Office of the Actuary. Click here to continue >>

Fitch and Moody's offer different outlooks on nonprofit healthcare sector
Both Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service released outlooks on the nonprofit healthcare sector this week, with Fitch giving the sector a negative outlook and Moody's saying the sector's outlook for 2016 is stable. Click here to continue >>

Kaiser to acquire Group Health in $1.8B deal: 5 things to know
Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative, which includes a healthcare and insurance arm like Kaiser. Click here to continue >>

Hospitals in Dallas and Fort Worth file for bankruptcy: 6 things to know
Forest Park Medical Center's hospitals in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, have filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to a Dallas Business Journalreport. Click here to continue >>

Hospitals, physicians poll-in on RCM outsourcing: 10 statistics to know for 2016
Black Book recently conducted its annual RCM outsourcing and software/technology user polls to ascertain the highest rated client experience vendors for 2015. Click here to continue >>

UnitedHealth CEO: Participating in ACA exchanges was a 'bad decision'
UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley defended the health insurer's possible exit from the Affordable Care Act exchanges in 2017 at an investor meeting in New York on Tuesday, according to a Bloomberg report. Click here to continue >>

Executive Roundtable

Consumerism in the era of patient engagement: How top healthcare organizations stand out as patient favorites
Despite the fact that healthcare is perhaps one of the most human-centric industries, the healthcare industry is late to adopt a consumer-centered business model. Click here to continue >>

Care Delivery

Are hospitals lowering readmissions or just putting more patients under observation?
Although hospital readmission rates have dropped across the country for certain conditions, an analysis of Medicare claims by The Wall Street Journal found patients reenter the hospital nearly as frequently, but under a different label: observation stays. Click here to continue >>

HHS: 87k lives and $20B saved through patient safety efforts
A report released by HHS on Tuesday shows a reduction in hospital acquired conditions has saved thousands of lives and billions of dollars in healthcare costs. Click here to continue >>

Mayo study: More physicians have symptoms of burnout
A three-year study from Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic and the American Medical Association revealed physician work-life balance is getting worse and now more than half of U.S. physicians feel burned out. Click here to continue >>

Physicians to Congress: Time to lift the 20-year-old ban on gun research
Every day of 2015 marked more than one mass shooting on average. Click here to continue >>

Executive Briefing

How to successfully operate with fee-for-service and fee-for-value reimbursement models
Hospitals and health systems today are balancing the demands of two very different payment models: the traditional fee-for-service model and emerging fee-for-value arrangements, which tie a portion of payment to providers' performance on cost-efficiency and quality performance measures. Click here to continue >>

Becker's CEO + CFO/CIO Roundtable Recap

Ascension's John Doyle: Staying true to core values while innovating for the future
Since its creation in 1999, Ascension has grown to become the largest faith-based nonprofit system in the nation. Click here to continue >>

Good, bad or too tough to say? What 4 health system CEOs think of hospital consolidation
There is a great deal of consolidation occurring in the healthcare industry today, and whether that is good or bad news to health system CEOs depends on their organization's market and M&A track record. Click here to continue >>

Staying relevant: Tougher than it sounds for large health systems and AMCs
In a post-reform era, healthcare organizations are tasked with not only sustaining excellence in care delivery, but also with refining strategies to safeguard their relevancy in an increasingly competitive, consumerist healthcare landscape. Click here to continue >>

3 healthcare leaders talk consolidation strategies
Hospital merger and acquisition activity in fiscal year 2015 is set to outpace what went down in 2014. Click here to continue >>

All together now: 3 healthcare executives on the new normal for payer-provider relationships
Payers and healthcare providers were traditionally seen as having conflicting goals — payers wanted to cut expenses, while providers wanted to provide quality care regardless of cost. Click here to continue >>

Moving forward, together: The next 5 years in healthcare
The days of siloed operations in healthcare are long over, be it related to data storage, hospital-physician relationships or population health initiatives. Click here to continue >>

Hospital CFOs' top concerns for 2016
From the effects of high-deductible health plans to how to remain profitable in the future, hospital and health system CFOs certainly face a myriad of challenges in 2016. Click here to continue >>

'Competitors by day, colleagues by night': How population health is sparking change in hospitals' strategy
For hospitals, healthcare solutions companies and EHR providers alike, population health requires different organizational behaviors and muscles. Click here to continue >>

Beyond the financial ROI: Expert thoughts on EHR selection
Although top-tier EHR vendors Epic and Cerner steal headlines, the upper rank of their competitors have demonstrated immense resiliency and churn out good-looking numbers with promise for growth. Click here to continue >>

Health Information Technology 

Judy Faulkner featured in Smithsonian's philanthropy display called 'Giving in America'
The Smithsonian National Museum of American History unveiled its Philanthropy Initiative and accompanying display to showcase individuals' gifts of time, talent, expertise and money. Click here to continue >>

Carolinas HealthCare System's Craig Richardville named CHIME-HIMSS CIO of the Year
HIMSS has named Craig Richardville, senior vice president and CIO of Charlotte, N.C.-based Carolinas HealthCare System as the CHIME-HIMSS John E. Gall Jr./CIO of the Year Award for 2015. Click here to continue >>

Becker's announces 2015 CIO Leadership Award winners
Becker's Healthcare is pleased to announce the winners of our 2015 CIO Leadership Awards. Click here to continue >>

Thought Leadership

46% of hospitals spend less than $500k on cybersecurity: 3 things to know
Despite the increasing threat of cybersecurity, many hospitals continue to have significant vulnerabilities in their web security. Click here to continue >>

16 for 2016: Key strategic questions for healthcare CEOs
Healthcare CEOs have more to concern them than ever. Andrew Chastain, managing partner and chair of the Healthcare practice for the executive search firm Witt/Kieffer, has spent the better part of the last year speaking with healthcare CEOs (as well as board members and other executives) about their pain points, strategies, visions, and concerns about the future. Click here to continue >>

Fire away: 10 industry leaders' uncensored reactions to top healthcare subjects
Ever wonder what healthcare leaders are really thinking? Click here to continue >>

Chuck Lauer: Where have our manners gone?
We live in an age when all of us are in such a hurry that we somehow forget very basic things in life. The most egregious example is manners. Click here to continue >>

The corner office: Dr. David Feinberg on raising the patient experience to a whole new level
David T. Feinberg, MD, was named president and CEO of Geisinger in February 2015. Click here to continue >>

Hospital and Health System Transactions

Executive Moves