Healthcare financial management : journal of the Healthcare Financial Management Association
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Hospitals have traditionally looked to income from operations, depreciation, debt, and philanthropy as their major source of revenue. This viewpoint, however, is changing as hospitals move from being the hub of the healthcare provider network to being spokes in an integrated delivery network (IDN), and the traditional tools of debt financing and revenue optimizing become less effective.
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All businesses--healthcare businesses in particular--have an absolute duty to treat their customers ethically; anything less is unacceptable. Author Goldman discusses four ethical principles that can be applied to help ensure that marketing decisions conform to the highest ethical standards.
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The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has released mortality data for hospitals to the public. Administrators of hospitals designated by HCFA as mortality outliers have to respond to negative press, the concerns of their medical staffs, and inquiries from employers and third-party payers. D. Michael Waggoner, MD, explains the numbers and suggests how hospitals can respond.
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A hospital's pension funds may be managed by its finance department, another internal department, or an outside investment adviser. Whatever the arrangement, healthcare financial managers should be involved in the decision between internal and external management of pension funds. A financial manager also can play a prominent role in developing a pension fund policy that balances a hospital's commitment to legal requirements, pension plan goals, and communication with investment advisers.
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A hospital's emergency physician billing procedures and fee schedules may not have kept pace with changes in the make-up of emergency room personnel. Revisions require thorough analysis of coding procedures, payer and patient data, Medicare rates, and breakdowns of collections. A successful analysis may yield improved collections, increased physician compensation, and separate billing by emergency physicians.