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A New Model for Managing Human Capital

June 14, 2019 by Healthcare Business Today Team Leave a Comment

By Chuck Taylor, David Murdock and Theresa Brandon

A healthcare organization’s workforce can consume as much as 50% of net operating revenue. Optimizing workforce efficiency is a major priority for finance leaders. However, identifying effective workforce development and cost control strategies is complex. As any hospital CFO knows, there is a big difference between potential gains and true hard-dollar improvements.

Consider the following scenario: A hospital finance team identifies an opportunity to reduce excessive premium pay in the nursing division, potentially saving $20 million per year. They invest in a series of initiatives aimed at improving flexible staffing strategies. However, for a variety of reasons, the organization is unable to hire key roles in a timely manner or consistently retain staff. This forces unit managers to increase agency nurse utilization, overtime pay and shift bonuses, undercutting projected savings. At year end, cost per unit of service has actually increased.

Labor cost reduction can be like squeezing a balloon — applying pressure to one area can make weaknesses in another area expand. In the example above, the flexible staffing initiative faltered because recruiting and retention did not meet the organization’s needs. But these shortfalls are often driven by a series of complex interactions between factors like compensation, professional development, staffing and management structures.

A healthcare workforce is a complex system. It has multiple components, and each component drives costs and outcomes throughout the organization. To manage human capital effectively, finance leaders need a conceptual, integrated model to balance workforce investments and labor cost savings.

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Best Supplemental Health Insurance Plans for Your Employees

June 14, 2019 by Healthcare Business Today Team Leave a Comment

Do you know what’s really covered under traditional health insurance? In reality, it’s probably less than you think. As a business owner, it’s up to you to make sure your employees are well taken care of. Healthy workers and productive workers. But beyond that, offering quality health insurance benefits will help you attract the best possible talent while retaining the top performers you already have.

However, finding a traditional health insurance plan that covers the most important things isn’t always easy. That’s where supplemental health insurance comes in. Supplemental insurance costs less than traditional insurance, and it’s something you purchase in addition to a regular policy. This insurance covers all of the gaps traditional coverage misses so you and your employees can have peace of mind. Here are the best supplemental health insurance plans for your employees.

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The Invisible Threat: Planning for Infectious Outbreaks in Healthcare Facilities

June 11, 2019 by Healthcare Business Today Team Leave a Comment

By Ann Pickren

Keeping patients, staff, and visitors informed of day-to-day and critical events is challenging enough for healthcare organizations, and the recent spike in contagious outbreaks, such as measles, adds another layer of complexity when it comes to keeping people safe.

The unpredictable nature of outbreaks demands a thoughtful approach to emergency management. How quickly an outbreak spreads and where it will hit are questions relevant to society as a whole — and healthcare facilities, in particular, where so many vulnerable patients reside. Timely and effective communication is essential to ensure that staff can act quickly, and there are key recommendations to consider when developing emergency communications plans based on required mandates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center of Disease Control (CDC).

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How Streamlining Payments Will Benefit Your Healthcare Organization

June 11, 2019 by Healthcare Business Today Team Leave a Comment

By Jessica Moran

Healthcare executives face tremendous pressure to provide quality care to patients, streamline registration experiences, and comply with data privacy regulations — all while being tasked with increasing operational efficiencies and decreasing costs. These pressures land heavily on Accounts Payable (AP) departments struggling to tie activity to the primary objectives of the organization. In fact, cost reduction initiatives are the number one priority of CFOs today, according to KaufmanHall¹.

Why the focus on the AP function as an area for improvement? Many healthcare organizations have expansive supplier networks. Making on-time payments to vendors relies on cash flow that can be affected by factors outside the organization’s control, including federal reimbursement, patient payments, and regulatory issues. With these factors complicating the AP process and over 49% of healthcare organizations still making most of their payments through manual processes with paper checks², it’s no wonder CFOs find themselves struggling to rein in the costs of making payments.

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The Blind Spot in Healthcare Technology

June 11, 2019 by Healthcare Business Today Team Leave a Comment

By Chris Yager

The healthcare industry continues to evolve, driven in large part by the changing policy landscape, but also by the (fast) entrance of new technologies. What started as a means to improve hospital, health system, and health plan operations — both clinical and financial — has now become the facilitator for healthcare consumerism. Given all that it can do, and all that can’t be done without it, healthcare technology is now a requirement for all organizations hoping to make it in this tumultuous environment.

Thankfully, this notion is widely recognized by stakeholders throughout the industry and most are doing all that they can to act before it is too late: before they lose out on incentive payments, before they are faced with a difficult merger or acquisition, and before any patients are lost to rival organizations.

Just look at the influx in patient-centered technology over the years: patient portals, virtual care, patient billing, wearables, and more. All are meant to make the experience and business of healthcare easier for everyone, and they do just that.

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Comparing Vectra and Verizon Threat Research: Internal Errors in Healthcare is Very Real

June 11, 2019 by Healthcare Business Today Team Leave a Comment

By Chris Morales

In our 2019 Spotlight Report on Healthcare, based on anonymized customer metadata, we identified a trend in internal user error.

Lapses in the proper implementation of a security plan or gaps in policies and procedures were a common problem, which could result in errors by staff members, leaving healthcare organizations exposed to theft or data loss.

Echoing what Vectra observed from its own healthcare customers, the Verizon 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report indicated that a key security risk for the healthcare industry is its susceptibility to internal errors and misuse. The report shows that the healthcare industry faces the highest risk from accidental or intentional insider threats than external threats.

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Regulatory Rollout: Keys to Educating Healthcare Facility Staff

June 11, 2019 by Healthcare Business Today Team Leave a Comment

By Larry Lacombe

When it comes to maintaining regulatory compliance, education is oftentimes the most difficult part. Particularly in situations when staff are accustomed to doing things in a certain way, it can be tough to persuade the team to adhere to new compliance-related procedures.

However, with more than 629 discrete regulatory requirements across nine domains, it’s apparent why compliance education is so crucial. With so many regulations, there’s a lot to consider.

When staff are properly educated, healthcare facilities will find it much easier to comply with regulatory requirements. Healthcare executives should consider the following three recommendations to appropriately educate healthcare facility staff on regulatory compliance.

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