Hospitals and Integrated Delivery Networks
Coauthored by Jason Henry and Sharon Higgs
?2016. FedEx. All rights reserved.
Introduction
While adapting and complying with costly changes in regulations as well as increases in operating costs, hospitals have managed to remain profitable. This is due primarily through Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance reimbursements for services rendered. However, new health care reform initiatives reduce percentage of these reimbursements, especially for hospital inpatient services. Less reimbursements coupled with costly phased rolled-out regulatory requirements is forcing some hospitals out of business.
To stay afloat, hospital executives are looking at the
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To remain competitive and reduce the risk of succumbing to take-overs by the for-profit hospitals, not-for-profit hospitals began to unite and form IDNs to reduce costs.
Over time, new healthcare reform measures were causing fundamental changes in reimbursement for services to hospitals and IDNs. Consequently, healthcare providers had to establish financial stability. This opened the door for third-party logistics providers (3PLs) to establish a strong presence in the healthcare industry. 3PLs? offered solutions to mitigate transportation and supply chain expenses that streamlined the order-to-delivery process and reduced expenses.
The introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will forever be recognized as legislative history. Conversely, the ACA has altered the landscape of the healthcare industry, albeit primarily impacting hospitals. Insurance reimbursement for hospital services rendered model is now determined on a ?quality of care? model and is determined by many regulatory nuances. The ACA is being incorporated in phases over a period of years because of the magnitude of change required to comply. Furthermore, the launch of the first phases involve a drastic reduction in reimbursement; while at the same time the costs for compliance is staggering. To remain solvent, hospitals have been forced to move from an inpatient setting to various
In 2012, the ACA found an excessive amount of readmissions of patients that were hospitalized within 30 days for the same medical conditions. This factor viewed under the ACA as a quality issue and CMS implemented value-based incentive payments based on performance in a set of quality measures. The plan is to implement a pay for performance (P4P) in formulas used by Medicare to reimbursement providers. “The objective is to link reimbursement to quality and efficiency as an incentive to improve the quality of health care, as well as reduce system-wide costs” (Shi and Singh, 2015). In addition to the P4P, nonprofit hospitals also focus on continual improvement, data and cost containment throughout the organization (Adamopoulos,
The healthcare industry in the United States has largely been a fee-for-service (FFS) mode. The healthcare industry would earn revenue by the amount of procedures, test, or visits. The downside to running a healthcare system like is that hospitals are encouraged to run unnecessary procedures or test. In economics this can be known as supplier-induced demand. However, the ACA seeks to change all of this by implementing a new model of value-based reimbursement. The value-based model is more concerned about quality outcomes verses the amount of procedures. If hospitals and healthcare providers cannot provider the better care at lower cost, there are financial penalties and lower reimbursements (Brown, n.d.). This will force hospitals and insurances companies to work together in order to ensure and ultimately create competition for Kaiser in their markets. In some recent the are been several insurance companies that trying to buy smaller
The negative impacts of healthcare reform to health systems are significant in that health systems are preparing their resources on developing Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) for bundled payments and population-based reimbursement. In this economy the impact to health systems may require healthcare systems to figure out ways to continue to keep positive financial performance due to the cost-reduction of healthcare reform. For some time now, health systems have subsidized their losses from the Medicare and Medicaid systems by contracting with commercial payers for their premium rates. As a result of the healthcare reform, cost shifting will shrink. Another negative impact over the next few years will be the large shift in health plan enrollment. Less people will be covered by highly
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the 2010 health reform act that could extend insurance coverage to as many as 32 million Americans, which also included policies that affect the quality of coverage insurers must offer (Knickman & Kovner, 2015). In addition to this, the ACA created a range of programs focused on furthering change in how medical care is organized and delivered, with a goal of reducing costs and improving quality and outcomes (Knickman & Kovner, 2015). However, these goals come at a cost. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact the ACA had on the population it affected in the United States as a nation, but specifically in the state of North Carolina;
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Healthcare bill into law. There has been much controversy over this Affordable Healthcare Act before and since it was signed into law. It was estimated that 30 million people would sign up for the new healthcare and that the healthcare industry would need a bigger workforce. Within hospitals across the United States there is already a shortage of nursing and medical staff. What will this new law mean for hospitals in their declining health care professionals? In what other ways will this healthcare law impact hospitals across the United States? This paper will attempt to explore some of the realities and possibilities in greater depth.
Carol Liebau discusses in her article, “ObamaCare Limits Patient Choice”, that hospitals such as Cedars-Sinai and the Mayo Clinic are high-priced and under competitive pressure because of Obamacare. Insurance corporations are in a larger hurry than ever to cut costs (Liebau). However, Americans are coming to realize that those hospitals aren't just thoughtless profit centers. They are pricey because they provide advanced medical care or they offer the specialized treatments that the most ill patients require. Many Americans who had plans they could afford and had access to leading healthcare providers, find that under ObamaCare, they are being excluded from high-quality care unless they want to pay much more for
In the hope of better coordinating the care of patients, improving quality and lowering costs, the ACA provides incentives for physicians and hospitals to work together in several ways, such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACO’s) or establishing bundled payments for episodes of care (Martin Gaynor, 2012 ) which has spurred consolidation (Becker, Gamble, & Rosin, 2015). Additionally, compliance with various federal programs such as Meaningful Use requires a significant investment in technology which can be fiscally challenging for smaller provider groups; driving acquisitions of these smaller entities by larger health systems. Other reasons cited by hospital administrators in the pursuit of consolidation is to ensure a steady stream of physician referrals (NPR, 2010), and to create economies of scale and increased efficiencies, the fruits of which result in reduced costs and therefore cheaper care for patients (ProMarket Writers, 2016). However, what most hospital
This paper works to review the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its impact over the past 6 years. Through this paper, the Act enacted by President Obama in 2010 will be closely examined. The areas of focus in this paper are the conditions that led to reform, the key points of the ACA, and the impact the ACA has had on the country, and more specifically, the nursing profession. The first part will briefly explain the state of the country when the ACA was enacted. Later, within the key points of the ACA portion, this paper will identify important changes made to the health care delivery system, such as incentives, and the Pay-for-Performance (P4P) program. Finally, the paper will conclude by outlining the impact the ACA has had on the country, as well as on the nursing profession
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 (CITATION). The ACA represent one of the biggest U.S healthcare system overhaul since Medicare and Medicaid passage in 1965 (CITATION). This reform was implemented to help consumers gain access to affordable health care coverage while also protecting them from abuse perpetrated by insurance companies. The goals of the ACA is to assure quality care, decreasing cost for the uninsured, and making healthcare available to all Americans. As a part of this quality care assurance, there is a mandated for positive transition of health care (CITATION). This brief will examine the factors that must be monitored in the implementation of ACA in order to promote the positive transition of health care and prevent re-hospitalization of this patient population.
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Healthcare bill into law. There has been much controversy over this Affordable Healthcare Act before and since it was signed into law. It was estimated that 30 million people would sign up for the new healthcare and that the healthcare industry would need a bigger workforce. Within hospitals across the United States there is already a shortage of nursing and medical staff. What will this new law mean for hospitals in their declining health care professionals? In what other ways will this healthcare law impact hospitals across the United States? This paper will attempt to explore some of the realities and possibilities in greater depth.
While there has been large media coverage about the insurance impacts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there has been a smaller amount discussed of the law’s changes to provider reimbursement policy, reforms to the delivery system, and investments in programs to improve the quality of care and constrain long-run growth in health care costs. And yet, the elements included in the ACA directed at cost and quality is possible to affect the practice of care for nearly every provider across the country. Although cost containment policies and initiatives are largely applied through federal health programs which including Medicare and Medicaid; cost containment in these programs has important cost-saving spillover effects to private health care markets through changes in health care practices and pricing across sectors of care.
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Healthcare bill into law. There has been much controversy over this Affordable Healthcare Act before and since it was signed into law. It was estimated that 30 million people would sign up for the new healthcare and that the healthcare industry would need a bigger workforce. Within hospitals across the United States there is already a shortage of nursing and medical staff. What will this new law mean for hospitals in their declining health care professionals? In what other ways will this healthcare law impact hospitals across the United States? This paper will attempt to explore some of the realities and possibilities in greater depth.
Although the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law nearly five years ago, the rhetoric overt the law and its provisions continue in Congress and around every kitchen table in America. While no one disagrees the healthcare system prior to the passage of the ACA was flawed, healthcare reform under the ACA continues to evolve and is likely to continue evolving in the future. Despite this, it is the law, and the healthcare industry is doing its best to keep up with the law’s mandates. For the hospital healthcare administrator, there are numerous changes affecting how hospitals do business, not only with the insurance industry, but with patients as well. The following overview discusses the basics of the ACA, the positive and negative ramifications for hospitals, and the impact the law will have for years to come. Although the final incarnation of the Affordable Care Act will develop over time, its premise of ending healthcare disparities and quality care for all citizens is long overdue.
The revised affordable care act was intended to solve the everlasting issue of how health insurance would be delivered and how it would be paid for. The ACA requires everyone to have insurance. Public insurance was expanded and private insurance rates were subsidized. There are raises in revenue because of the new taxes surrounding the ACA, and a cut in spending under the nation 's largest insurance plan, which is Medicare. Projecting the impacts of fundamental reform to the health care system is filled with complicatedness. This brief describes these reforms and, where possible, documents their initial impact at the ACA’s five-year mark. Our report discusses the key results from that prior reform and what they might imply for the impacts of the ACA.
The Affordable Care Act puts consumers back in charge of their health care. Under the law, a new “Patient’s Bill of Rights” gives the American people the stability and flexibility they need to make informed choices about their health. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a multi-faceted reform of the nation 's health care system. The Wow Hospital Association is working with members, stakeholders and lawmakers to facilitate implementation of the law. Wow Hospitals will experience as a result of the ACA. Common themes in all of these reforms are accountability, efficiency, and quality. Furthermore, these plans provide new opportunities for WH to invest in upstream interventions– working to make policy, systems and environment improvements that will impact the communities in which we serve.