Healthcare Financial Management articles from November 2006

Healthcare Financial Management archives from November 2006

Health insurance premium growth moderating slightly but still increasing, says Kaiser study.(Healthcare Spending)
November 1, 2006... Premiums for employer-sponsored health coverage rose an average 7.7 percent in 2006, less than the 9.2 percent increase recorded in 2005 and the recent peak of 13.9 percent in 2003, according to the Employer Health Benefits 2006 Annual Survey...

CMS.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
November 1, 2006... ... CMS has published changes to the carriers' implementation instructions for inpatient prospective payment system, long-term care hospital PPS, and psychiatric PPS payment policies based on the FY07 inpatient PPS final rule. The changes...

Two bills would offset SCHIP funding shortfalls.(Keep Kids Covered Act, State Children's Health Insurance Programs)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... In mid-September, the Keep Kids Covered Act (H.R. 6098) was introduced by Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., to provide federal funding to at least 17 states that will have insufficient federal funding to sustain their existing State Children's Health...

Federal register.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
November 1, 2006... ... The rural health clinic regulations have been revised by an interim final rule (Federal Register, Sept. 22) to revert to those provisions set forth in regulations before publication of the Dec. 24, 2003, RHC final rule. That final rule...

Health-related measures on ballots in nine states.(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 2006 will see the second-highest total number of initiatives (80) on state ballots in the past 100 years, exceeded only in 1914 and 1997, when the total was 87. Of this year's 80...

CMS announces FY07 hospital inpatient PPS final payment rates.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, prospective payment system )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced final hospital inpatient prospective payment system rates for FY07. Although CMS completed its FY07 IPPS final rule on Aug. 1, the rates announced at that time were tentative.

NLRB rules that permanent charge nurses are supervisors.(National Labor Relations Board )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... In an anxiously awaited decision, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that full-time hospital charge nurses are considered supervisors and are therefore ineligible to participate in employee unions.

Illinois not-for-profit hospital loses property tax exemption.(Illinois Department of Revenue)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... In a closely watched challenge to a not-for-profit hospital's tax-exempt status, the Illinois Department of Revenue affirmed its 2004 decision to deny a property tax exemption to Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana, Ill. The decision...

Pay-for-performance preferable for Medicare, Says IOM.(Institute of Medicine)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Because Medicare's current fee-for-service payment system apparently does little to promote improvements in the quality of health care, the Department of Health and Human Services should gradually replace it with a new pay-for-performance...

New scorecard finds room for improvement in U.S. health care.(Quick Hits: Top News Stories of the Month)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... The United States ranks 15th out of 19 countries on a measure of preventable deaths before age 75, and lack of access to care due to cost is four times more prevalent in this country than in the United Kingdom. In an article in Health Affairs,...

FASB releases fair value measurements statement.(Financial Accounting Standards Board )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released Statement 157, Fair Value Measurements, which defines fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value in generally accepted accounting principles, and expands disclosures about...

Tenet enters five-year corporate integrity agreement.(Office of Inspector General, Tenet Healthcare Corporation. )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... The Office of Inspector General of HHS has entered into a corporate integrity agreement with Tenet Healthcare Corporation. The agreement is part of Tenet's resolution of its civil and administrative liability for a wide range of investigated...

Journey to Kenya.(Lisa Sorenson, Peace Corps )(Interview)
November 1, 2006... Last month's issue of hfm featured a profile of Lisa Sorenson, a former HFMA member who recently moved to Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer, fulfilling a lifelong dream. In part two of this profile, Sorenson shares stories about life in Kenya....

Fresh approaches to food service.(hospitals)
November 1, 2006... Imagine a hospital where every meal is made from scratch, with organic produce, naturally lean meats, milk that is free of added hormones, and no trans fats or major additives. A hospital where the menu includes low-fat pasta primavera with...

Secrets of master doodlers.(Strange, but True)(Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles and Scrawls from the Oval Office- David Greenberg)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... JFK obsessively repeated words on White House stationery: Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam. Ronald Reagan drew cartoon faces. Franklin D. Roosevelt favored tiny sketches of boats; he had always been fascinated by the sea and collected model ships. ...

These beds weren't meant to be empty.(hospitals)(Discussion)
November 1, 2006... hfm's November 1986 story "Idle Assets: Profits, Empty Beds Make for Good Bedfellows" presents a roundtable discussion on one of the problems faced by hospitals: The cost of empty hospital beds--and how to convert those empty beds into revenue....

HFMA roundtable: consumer-directed care--what it will mean to your business office.(Site Seeing)(Website overview)
November 1, 2006... HFMA Roundtable: Consumer-Directed Care--What It Will Mean to Your Business Office. This report is based on a roundtable discussion with senior healthcare financial executives examining the impact consumer-directed care will have on the...

HFMA highlights: inpatient hospital PPS final rule for FY07.(prospective payment system, Healthcare Financial Management Association )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... HFMA Highlights: Inpatient Hospital PPS Final Rule for FY07. On Aug. 1, 2006, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the hospital inpatient prospective payment system final rule for FY07. This article details the effects that...

HFMA roundtable: consumer influence on technology investments.(Healthcare Financial Management Association )(Discussion)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... HFMA Roundtable: Consumer Influence on Technology Investments. Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy about medical and information technologies and more involved in their healthcare purchasing decisions. The result? Making the right...

Overheard.(ETCETERA)
November 1, 2006... "We're in a period of continued moderation... but nobody should be celebrating too wildly." --Drew Altman, president and CEO, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, responding to the Kaiser Foundation/ HRET report on the slowing growth of...

The other side of health care.(ETCETERA)(Column)
November 1, 2006... Recently, I took my first real vacation in four years. I left the laptop and cell phone at home and went overseas. In reading the tour brochure (admittedly not until I was actually on the vacation), I noticed it informed me should I have a...

Courage in leadership like a long-distance runner? I'm a runner. Well, sort of.
November 1, 2006... While I say I'm a runner instead of a jogger, I never was all that fast. And age has contributed to even slower times and virtually constant aches and pains. But I keep plugging away, as it's the best counterattack to my culinary desires and...

Phil Taylor: a view from the United Kingdom.(Healthcare Financial Management Association )(Interview)
November 1, 2006... Phil Taylor, Chairman of HFMA U.K., is the director of finance and performance at Shropshire and Staffordshire Strategic Health Authority in the United Kingdom. He joined SASHA in July 2004. Previously, he was deputy director of finance in the...

The many and the one.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
November 1, 2006... Yet we cannot truly carry out these responsibilities unless the ultimate focus of our concern is the personal health of the individual human being. We dare not get so caught up in our systems and our strategies that we lose sight of his needs...

HFMA Leader C. Henry Hottum remembered for contributions to the profession.(Healthcare Financial Management Association )(Obituary)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... C. Henry Hottum, Jr., FHFMA, CPA, a longtime volunteer leader of HFMA who was one of three members to incorporate the organization and was once elected its president, died Sunday in his hometown of Memphis, Tenn. He was 93 years old. ...

Healthcare leaders agree to reduce burden of verifying insurance.(Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare)
November 1, 2006... More than 20 leading healthcare organizations have taken a real or step toward easing the burden that physicians and other providers face in verifying patient insurance information. The groups, including Aetna, Humana, and WellPoint, have...

HFMA comment letter to Grassley emphasizes balance in charity care reporting.(HFMA NEWS)
November 1, 2006... In a comment letter to Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, HFMA emphasizes that HFMA Principles and Practices Board Statement No. 15 on reporting uncompensated care, as well as guidelines for community benefit...

Health care: spending more, getting a lot, but seeking the best values: a Kaiser Family Foundation report in late September was the occasion for a classic "the glass is half-full/half-empty" moment.(EYE ON WASHINGTON)
November 1, 2006... The foundation had completed its latest review of rising employer-provided health insurance costs and projected that premiums would rise 7.7 percent for 2006, about twice the consumer cost-of-living number projected for the year. The New York...

Communicating the financial case for clinical improvement.(hfma roundtable)(Discussion)
November 1, 2006... Finance executives and clinicians tend to speak different languages. Yet as clinical performance increasingly becomes tied to the bottom line, the quality with which conversations take place between the two groups takes on ever greater...

Combining pay for performance with gainsharing.(PHYSICIAN STRATEGIES)
November 1, 2006... Does high-quality, efficient care cost less to deliver? Recent analyses suggest that it does. Earlier this year, an analysis by Premier, Inc. showed that hospital costs could have been as much as $1.4 billion lower in 2004 if all...

Physician employment: this time around, give finance a leading role.(PHYSICIAN STRATEGIES)
November 1, 2006... In the 1990s, physician employment took health care by storm--only to collapse within a few years under the weight of huge financial losses. The latest news, however, is that physician employment has reemerged as a prominent strategy for...

Avoiding the pitfalls of strategic planning.
November 1, 2006... Adventure is just bad planning --Roald Amundsen Strategic planning can be exciting for hospital leaders. It gives them the opportunity to set the organization's course toward the promise of a finer future, and along the way, to explore...

Clobber--or collaborate? Taking a fresh look at your competition: if you haven't yet considered collaborating with your competition, what are you waiting for?(health care)
November 1, 2006... Collaboration and competition have been fairly hot topics in the healthcare literature in the past five years, yet most of the highlighted approaches have been conventional and lacking in ingenuity. The notion of collaborating with the...

Strategic planning: getting from here to there: a strategic plan is a hospital's road map, and the CFO is the navigator.(FEATURE STORY)
November 1, 2006... "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." --Yogi Berra In health care, "getting there" is more challenging than ever. Providers can't follow the same old road map that worked...

Hospital-physician joint ventures: maximizing the potential: long-term, sustainable joint ventures are possible with a plan that focuses on high performance.(FEATURE STORY)
November 1, 2006... For most of the recent decade, joint ventures between hospitals and physicians were based on a singular goal: financial gain, which depended on the venture's ability to increase utilization under the payment structure in existence throughout...

From a ripple to a wave why eligibility matters: incomplete eligibility verification can create problematic ripples throughout the revenue cycle. But some healthcare organizations have found a way to keep the ripples from turning into a tsunami.(FEATURE STORY)
November 1, 2006... It is a simple fact of the healthcare revenue cycle: Insurance eligibility drives payment. And the first step in that cycle--eligibility verification--is the most critical. Unfortunately, eligibility verification is one of the most neglected...

Funding technology: evaluating and exercising the leasing option: when seeking a means to fund expensive but essential technologies, capital and operating leases are two options that hospital executives should consider.(FEATURE STORY)
November 1, 2006... The ability to keep pace with advancements in technology is a hallmark of successful hospitals. But for many hospitals, particularly not-for-profits, keeping up is "easier said than done." Investment in technology is placing heavy demands...

Challenging silent PPO discounts: if you're not aware of how silent PPOs work, you may be providing more "discounts" than you intend.(preferred provider organizations )
November 1, 2006... The term silent PPO refers to a practice in which an entity that is responsible for paying medical claims takes a discount to which it is not entitled. Somewhat of a misnomer, the term originated in the early 1990s when preferred provider...

Staying ahead in a changing regulatory environment.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
November 1, 2006... The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a final rule on Aug. 1, 2006, for changes to the inpatient prospective payment system for FY07. The changes include a new method for establishing diagnosis-related group payment weights...

Five-star management: dining out can be a lesson in effective management.(LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT)
November 1, 2006... As a consultant and interim executive, I spend more than 200 nights a year away from home. Consequently, I eat out a lot--actually a whole lot more than I would like, but it comes with the job. If you have ever had a great (or terrible) dining...

Will you provide IT relief to physicians? New regulations permit hospitals to make donations of health IT to members of their medical staff under certain circumstances.(physicians self-referral relief regulations )
November 1, 2006... The physician self-referral relief regulations, which became effective Oct. 10, 2006, ease restrictions on providing health IT hardware and software to physicians. The regulations create an exception to the Stark law and safe harbor for...

Folly or volley? Will a $4 pill finally open the healthcare market to competitive pricing? On Sept. 22, the retail drug industry stirred the healthcare pot once again.(NEW REVENUE GROWTH)
November 1, 2006... It dipped its strategic oar a little deeper into the troubled waters of healthcare pricing. On that day, Wal-Mart (Bentonville, Ark.), the nation's largest retailer, announced it was cutting the prices of 300 generic drugs to just $4 for a...

David meets Goliath in the capital markets: a recent business visit to a hospital really got me thinking. Let me put you in the moment, and I think you'll see why.(CAPITAL FINANCE)
November 1, 2006... Approaching the information desk at the main entrance, I see the sign, "Mary Connors, Director of First Impressions." I'm impressed. She's responding to a phone call and asks, "... and what's the name of the client you wanted to speak to?"...

Calendar.(Calendar)
November 1, 2006... NATIONAL EVENTS December 4-7 HFMA's Winter Seminars in Chicago Dec.4-7 Winter Seminars offer you 16 seminars covering the hottest Chicago topics in the areas of financial management, ...

Jason L. Adams, CHE (Nevada Chapter).(PEOPLE)(Jason L. Adams appointed as a senior director )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Mr. Adams has been promoted from director of patient access services to senior director of business operations and patient access services, Renown Health (formerly known as Washoe Health System), Reno, Nev.

William M. Eikost (Georgia Chapter).(PEOPLE)(William M. Eikost appointed as a vice president )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Mr. Eikost has joined Medical Data Systems, Inc., Powder Springs, Ca., as vice president of business development. Formerly, he was group vice president of national accounts, Emdeon Business Services, Nashville, Tenn.

Tracey Roland (New Jersey Chapter).(PEOPLE)
November 1, 2006... Ms. Roland has been named senior manager, Crant Thornton, LLP, New York. She had been a manager, healthcare practice, Ernst & Young, Iselin, N.J.

Anthony (Todd) Stracener, CPA (Lone Star Chapter).(PEOPLE)
November 1, 2006... Mr. Stracener has been appointed vice president, finance, Home Health Services, Plano, Texas. Formerly, he was controller, Wilson N. Jones Medical Center, Sherman, Texas.

Scott Knight (Nevada Chapter).(PEOPLE)
November 1, 2006... Mr. Knight has been named business information specialist, Renown Health (formerly Washoe Health System), Reno, Nev. Formerly, he was revenue cycle manager, PeaceHealth, Eugene, Ore.

David Verinder, CPA (Florida Chapter).(PEOPLE)(David Verinder appointed as a CFO)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Mr. Verinder has been named CFO, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, Sarasota, Fla. Formerly, he was executive director, system finance, Scott & White Memorial Hospital and Clinic, Temple, Texas.

Christopher T. Mancill (Virginia Chapter).(PEOPLE)(Christopher T. Mancill appointed as a associate director)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Mr. Mancill has joined Amgen Inc., Washington, D.C., as associate director, global reimbursement and planning. Previously, he was consultant, The Health Strategies Consultancy, LLC, Washington, D.C.

Ellen Mattis (Metropolitan Philadelphia Chapter).(PEOPLE)
November 1, 2006... Ms. Mattis has been named consulting manager, IMA Consulting, Chadds Ford, Pa. She had been engagement director, Zavata, Inc., Conshohocken, Pa.

Gary Singer (Tennessee Chapter).(PEOPLE)
November 1, 2006... Mr. Singer has been appointed director of financial operations, group IV, Community Health Systems, Brentwood, Tenn. He had been CFO, Doctors Hospital of Dallas, Dallas.

Andrew Workman (Kentucky Chapter).(PEOPLE)(Andrew Workman appointed as a administrator)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Mr. Workman has joined Oak Tree Hospital at Baptist Northeast, LaCrange, Ky., as administrator. He had been director of patient financial operations, Baptist Healthcare System, Louisville, Ky.

Capital spending continues to lag.(DATA TRENDS)
November 1, 2006... As hospital finance managers continue to scrutinize their spending decisions, capital expenditures are receiving a "smaller slice of the pie" compared with spending on salaries, benefits, and supplies. Recent data indicate that dollars...

A matter of trust: a recent ruling illustrates why it's so critical for hospitals to foster trust in the communities they serve.(FROM THE PRESIDENT)
November 1, 2006... Hospitals--particularly not-for-profit hospitals--are among the most important assets that any community has. Residents put enormous trust in hospitals to meet their healthcare needs and to enhance quality of life for the entire community. For...