Veralon Views Blog

The Veralon Views blog is an extension of our partnership with leaders who are transforming the healthcare industry. Here, we share expert perspectives from our nationally recognized senior consulting team on issues that are key to the success of your organization.

HFMA: Preparing for Cardiac Bundled Payments Part 1

Approximately 2,440 hospitals will participate in the bundled payment program for cardiac care beginning in January 2018. Health systems around the country have identified essential steps for structuring cardiac bundle programs to optimize performance, according to a recent report from the Healthcare Financial Management Association.   Of the 2,440 hospitals that will participate, 1,120 in […]

Moody’s: NFP Hospitals Should Focus on Risk Management

The ability to implement effective strategies to minimize risk will become increasingly important in determining not-for-profit and public hospitals’ credit strength in the changing landscape. These hospitals are focused on risk management to avoid pitfalls and capitalize on new opportunities in anticipation of momentous changes, not the least of which is the fate of the […]

AHCA Medicaid Rollback Concerns Provider-Sponsored Plans

Under the House’s updated version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), provider-sponsored plans expect decreased federal funding resulting in many of the people they cover becoming uninsured, and also hospital closures.   For example, one CEO of a provider-sponsored plan said recently at a not-for-profit healthcare investor conference, “The AHCA scares the hell out […]

4 Ways to Simplify — and Strengthen — Your Physician Compensation Plan

by Stuart J. Schaff, Senior Manager, and Amanda Brown, Senior Associate

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Can your physicians easily project their compensation for the next year with reasonable accuracy, or do they need to have their accountants build elaborate Excel models to do so? Many hospitals and medical practices have made their physician compensation plans more intricate as healthcare has become more complex. However, compensation plans that are too complicated […]

Some Providers Tackle Food Insecurity as Part of Population Health Management

Economists estimate that two-thirds of all the cost of health care relates to what are called social determinants of health—those factors outside the acute care setting that affect health and cost. These factors include everything from exercise and healthy diet, healthy weight, to avoiding substance abuse or other self-destructive behaviors, to ensuring that people have […]

Experts Expect Senate to Significantly Change AHCA

On May 4 the House of Representatives passed a new version of the American Health Care Act (AHC) that made deep cuts to both Medicaid funding and marketplace subsidies. It now moves to the Senate, where experts predict it will undergo substantial changes.   Hospital groups opposed the newer version of the bill primarily because […]

Some Experts Predict Extension of MACRA Flexibility through 2018

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) determines only Medicare Part B payment, but hospitals and health systems will be affected through their employed and affiliated physicians. So those organizations are working to help their physicians succeed under the payment system, which will mean moving as quickly as possible to advanced alternative […]

Bundled Payments: Mandatory, Voluntary or Gone Altogether?

Policy experts recently weighed in on the future of the bundled payment program. Uncertainty has been the byword since the current administration delayed the start of the latest mandatory bundled payment program. Some have speculated that such models are “on their way out.” There is no consensus among experts.   A review of the background: […]

The Board’s Role in Cybersecurity

(Originally published in Nasdaq’s MarketInsite, March 30, 2017, and written by Gordon Clark, President and CEO of iProtean, now part of Veralon)   Cyberattacks. They are perhaps the most vexing security threats facing businesses today. To have a computer connected to the outside world is by definition to be vulnerable. Yet an analysis published in The NTT […]