Today I had a chance to attend the Craneware Summit in Las Vegas. The Craneware Summit gives me a nice view into what’s happening in the financial world of healthcare. The Summit kicked off today with Todd Nelson speaking about the hospital CFO. Here’s a look at some of the insights he offered:
Listening to Todd Nelson VP at @hfmaorg kicking off the @craneware summit. #cwsummit pic.twitter.com/tjRAKjHDBD
— EMR, EHR and HIT (@ehrandhit) October 22, 2015
Todd Nelson is a former hospital CFO that is now a VP at HFMA.
Value Equation: Value = Quality/Payment #CWSummit #HFMA
— EMR, EHR and HIT (@ehrandhit) October 22, 2015
Is this equation too simple?
If the meaningful use dollars go away, hospital CFO's better plan accordingly. #CWSummit
— EMR, EHR and HIT (@ehrandhit) October 22, 2015
I don’t think that meaningful use money will go away, but it’s worth considering. Would your organization survive if the rest of the meaningful use money were pulled out from underneath you?
EHR implementation budget turns into EHR optimization budget. The EHR budget doesn't go away like many CFOs might think. #CWSummit
— EMR, EHR and HIT (@ehrandhit) October 22, 2015
This is often forgotten. It’s “easy” to get the billion dollar EHR implementation budget, but many forget to include the ongoing EHR support and optimization budget. In my experience this is often just bad planning, but in a few cases it’s done deliberately in order to allow the EHR project to go forward. They figure they can always ask for the support and optimization budget later.
If you're in a hospital you have accountants. You don't have actuaries. In the value based world u need to find actuary skill sets #CWSummit
— EMR, EHR and HIT (@ehrandhit) October 22, 2015
This was an interesting comment coming from an accountant and former hospital CFO. He was willing to admit that he doesn’t have the skill or at least the desire to be the actuary for the hospital. However, as we shift to value based reimbursement, hospitals are going to have to become good at actuarial analysis.
Cash is still one of the most important things to the hospital CFO. That means revenue cycle management is still very important. #CWSummit
— EMR, EHR and HIT (@ehrandhit) October 22, 2015
Todd Nelson also extended this comment by saying that you can survive a long time even with losses as long as you have the cash. If you’ve worked with a hospital CFO, you’ve probably seen the cash focus first hand. That hasn’t and probably won’t change.
"Hope is not an effective strategy for change." -Tom Atchison You can't just "hope" the budget will get better. #CWSummit
— EMR, EHR and HIT (@ehrandhit) October 22, 2015
This is great advice as hospital executives evaluate how to approach the changing healthcare reimbursement environment. Hope is not a strategy.
