These days, the news often carries stories of how state and federal governmental entities are altering the way they pay for citizens’ medical bills. Among the discourse are buzzwords like Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare. The frequency of change in healthcare reform implementation has made it more important than ever that hospital financial management be up to date on how these changes affect their financial statements. And more importantly, have the proper analytical software in place and understood by those working with the output. According to Healthcare Finance News, “the American College of Healthcare Executives’ annual member survey of top issues confronting community hospitals, financial challenges again ranked number one on the list in 2014 – ahead of healthcare reform implementation, governmental mandates, patient safety and quality, care for the uninsured/underinsured, patient satisfaction, physician-hospital relations, population health management, technology and personnel shortages.” An abundance of reasons exist which cause alterations in payments to hospitals. For example, in recent months, there has been a deduction in the amount of Medicare payments to hospitals with high infection rates. The Senate has finally brought resolution to the decade-long fight over a formula to calculate payments to doctors and other providers for their Medicare patients; President Obama plans to sign the bill . And the analytics required by the state and federal government entities for them to pay the hospitals for their patients are also an ever-changing thing. Without knowledge of the best software available – and the understanding by staff as well as management – that aids in the coordination of all these governmental changes, hospital financial management becomes unnecessarily more stressful. And since it is unlikely that this dynamic will ever change, it is essential to ensure a hospital has the tools it needs immediately. If you want your finance department running flawlessly, or need help implementing healthcare reform initiatives, please contact us for assistance. We’d be happy to help you.
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