Healthcare financial management : journal of the Healthcare Financial Management Association
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Enrollment approaches hospitals plan to undertake during the second open-enrollment period for the insurance exchanges, or marketplaces, include: Deploying mobile units to help eligible consumers sign up for coverage or assistance. Working with insurers to more easily identify patients who received coverage through the exchanges. Clarifying details of coverage with patients who have marketplace coverage. Limiting use of hospital charity care programs among those who qualify for Medicaid or marketplace coverage.
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Accountable care organizations (ACOs) have been described as a "secret weapon" in the effort to slow the exponential growth of healthcare costs while improving the quality of care. Short-term cost savings are crucial to sustaining the ACO model because without revenue from shared-savings incentives, participating organizations might not be motivated to continue their involvement. ACOs of various types have achieved cost savings in recent years while improving care for their patients, and opportunities lie ahead for ACOs to become even more effective.
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Although robotic hysterectomy does not produce significantly better outcomes than laparoscopic hysterectomy, hospitals may feel pressure from patients and clinicians to use the robotic procedure. Hospitals that opt for robotic hysterectomy over laparoscopic hysterectomy face not only higher variable costs, but also an opportunity cost in the form of lost surgical capacity. Estimating the opportunity cost of performing robotic hysterectomy provides crucial data for hospital executives in deciding whether to invest in the procedure.
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Healthcare organizations should approach performance improvement as a program, not a project. The program should be led by a guidance team that identifies goals, prioritizes work, and removes barriers to enable clinical improvement teams and work groups to realize performance improvements. A healthcare enterprise data warehouse can provide the initial foundation for the program analytics. Evidence-based best practices can help achieve improved outcomes and reduced costs.
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Time-driven activity-based costing: Traces the path of a patient throughout the continuum of care for a specific medical condition. Identifies the actual cost of each resource used, such as personnel, space, consumables, and equipment, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Documents the amount of time the patient spends with each resource. Supports the ability to aggregate cost information across multiple organizations that deliver care to a patient throughout a defined episode of care.