Five Proven Strategies to Improve Operating Margins. How Health Systems Can Reduce Costs, Increase Efficiency, and Boost Revenue

Experts expect 2024 to be a “make or break” year for a large portion of the healthcare sector, especially among hospitals with annual revenues below $500 million. High labor and operating costs, slow cash flow recovery, and low payer reimbursements continue to compress margins, causing financial results to lag behind pre pandemic levels for many hospitals. While volumes and overall liquidity are starting to show signs of improvement, health systems continue to face an uphill battle as the rate of growth for expenses outpaces that for revenue.

Payer enrollment can take months even when applications are complete and errorfree. Mistakes can cause further delays as enrollment specialists work to correct discrepancies and omissions — from inaccurate taxonomy codes to missing documents and signatures. The longer it takes to get enrollment approval, the longer your organization will wait for payment of claims. Automating the payer enrollment process enables you to submit complete, accurate applications faster, reducing the risk of delayed or denied claims that can negatively impact downstream revenue

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qgenda-wp-june-2024.pdf(asccommunications.com)

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A survey of 100 hospital executives to rank their technological priorities

Respondents to the Becker/T-Mobile survey include more than 100 C-suite-level leaders, notably CEOs (10%) and chief medical officers (12%) as well as nursing leaders, such as chief nursing officers and nursing directors (20%). HR directors and above (10%)participated as well. Other common respondent titles include healthcare vice presidents, various types of clinicians, and senior administrators. The types of organizations represented in this survey include health systems, nonprofit providers, community hospitals, rural hospitals, academic medical centers, and critical access hospitals. Most respondents came from midsize or large facilities, with 27% from facilities that have 101 to 300 beds and 48% from facilities with more than 300 beds

In this financially challenging, highly competitive environment, most hospital and health system leaders believe in the importance of innovation—with the majority of Becker’s/T-Mobile survey respondents rating innovation as a high priority. Their technology and data focused initiatives involve advancing digital offerings for patients, streamlining workflows with mobile solutions, implementing AI and/or automation, improving EHR systems, and implementing or expanding virtual care. The driving forces behind these innovations include increased efficiency, better access to higher quality care, improved outcomes, and increased patient satisfaction. However, it’s clear that persistent challenges in key enablers of innovation—namely funds, personnel and time—are posing barriers to maximum innovation projects. Siloed data and practitioner resistance also present ongoing barriers.

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t-mobile-for-business-wp-may-2024.pdf(asccommunications.com)

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Top25 hospitals for AI readiness

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic was named as the No.1 hospital leading in artificial intelligence readiness, according to a July 15 report from CB Insights. 

To identify which health systems are best equipped for AI, CB Insights launched the "Hospital AI Readiness Index." This index ranks the top private-sector health systems in the U.S. by hospital count, assessing their preparedness in two key areas — innovation and execution. 

The innovation scores are determined by the existence of an AI-focused research center and CB Insights data, which includes AI-related patents, acquisitions and deal-making activities since 2019.Execution scores are also determined by CB Insights data, which includes AI-related business relationships, product launch media mentions and earnings transcripts since 2019.

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Top 25 hospitals for AI readiness(beckershospitalreview.com)

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