Healthcare CFO Report

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Posted By: Annmarie Budniak April 23, 2019

When it comes to healthcare financial and payment matters, value-based care, and policy here is what is being reported and talked about.

To Listen:

InterviewsNow – On this episode, host Carol Flagg (@carolflagg) speaks with Kermit Randa CEO of Kaufman Hall’s Software Division at their 2019 Performance Management Summit about how actionable data is helping healthcare CFOs make more informed decisions in an ever increasing competitive environment.

Policy

HHS To Deliver Value-Based Transformation in Primary Care – HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced the CMS Primary Cares Initiative, a new set of payment models that will transform primary care to deliver better value for patients throughout the healthcare system. Building on the lessons learned from and experiences of the previous models, the CMS Primary Cares Initiative will reduce administrative burdens and empower primary care providers to spend more time caring for patients while reducing overall health care costs. The models were developed by the Innovation Center under the leadership of Adam Boehler and are part of Secretary Azar’s value-based transformation initiative.

Medicare Trustees Report shows Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will deplete in 7 years – The Medicare Board of Trustees released their annual report for Medicare’s two separate trust funds — the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, which funds Medicare Part A, and the Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund, which funds Medicare Part B and D. The report found that the HI Trust Fund will be able to pay full benefits until 2026, the same as last year’s report. For the 75-year projection period, the HI actuarial deficit has increased to 0.91 percent of taxable payroll from 0.82 percent in last year’s report. The change in the actuarial deficit is due to several factors, most notably lower assumed productivity growth, as well as effects from slower projected growth in the utilization of skilled nursing facility services, higher costs and lower income in 2018 than expected, lower real discount rates, and a shift in the valuation period.

Finance

CNBC
Health-care stocks could rebound after their worst week of the year (4/22/19) – The S&P 500 health-care sector fell 4.4% last week, its worst weekly decline since late December. The move ended with more than 93% of health-care stocks trading below their 20-day moving averages, a short-term technical indicator, according to Andrew Thrasher of Thrasher Analytics.

Fitch Solutions
Newly released report from Fitch Solutions shows chronic medical conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases present challenges to US economic growth. Total annual costs of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity and cancer will exceed $1 trillion. Citing research from the Milken Institute, the total direct costs due to chronic diseases reached $1.1 trillion in 2016, while indirect costs were $3.7 trillion.

Ponder & Co.
Announced Quarterly Hospital M&A Volume is the Lowest in Nearly 10 Years: Market Perspectives 2019 – The first quarter of 2019 exhibited the lowest quarterly volume of announced acute care hospital transactions since the fourth quarter of 2009. It also marked the first quarter since the third quarter of 2016 that had less than 20 announced transactions.

Hall Render
Inside the Numbers: Four Key Takeaways from S&P, Fitch and Moody’s 2019 Outlooks for the Nonprofit Health Sector – S&P Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service recently released their Nonprofit Healthcare 2019 Outlooks, which are largely consistent with 2018, despite changes in the health care industry over the past year. Fitch and Moody’s issued negative outlooks for the nonprofit health care sector, while S&P’s sector outlook was stable. Despite their differing views on the future of the industry, they each agreed that nonprofit hospitals will continue to face a variety of short-term and long-term regulatory and business challenges.

US News
U.S. News Best Hospitals Rankings and Ratings – The U.S. News Best Hospitals analysis reviews hospitals’ performance in adult and pediatric clinical specialties, procedures and conditions. Scores are based on several factors, including survival, patient safety, nurse staffing and more.

Value-Based Care

Health Catalyst
Increased Visibility into Value-Based Performance Results in $2.1M in Additional Pay for Performance – Data-driven decision making is crucial for healthcare organizations looking to constantly improve care in a value-based market. However, a lack of real-time, actionable data leaves many organizations struggling to measure the effectiveness of population health improvements. Data available to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB Health) was often delayed, typically at least six weeks, slowing the improvement process. The available information also did not convey the scope of potential opportunities, meaning chances for improvements sometimes went overlooked.

Patient Financial Matters

OnlyBoth
OnlyBoth Discovers Unique Comparative Improvement Insights Across U.S. Hospitals – OnlyBoth Inc. (@onlyboth), www.benchmine.com, announces three lists of hospitals demonstrating the highest level of improvement in key performance measures among 4,784 hospitals in the U.S. The measures involve changes in patient recommendation rating, overall hospital rating, and all the star ratings together.

InstaMed
InstaMed Releases Ninth Annual Trends in Healthcare Payments Report – InstaMed (@InstaMed), healthcare’s most trusted payments network, announced the release of the Trends in Healthcare Payments Ninth Annual Report: 2018. The report, first shared with attendees at the InstaMed Healthcare Payments Summit 2019, explores critical market shifts influencing the healthcare payments industry.

Events