Healthcare CEOs Reveal Cost-Reduction Strategies

Waste is the enemy. Not health plans, not employers, not Obamacare.

That was the message from hospital and health system senior executives who participated in discussions about cost control at our annual CEO Exchange in LaJolla, CA, last week.

We invited a select group of top leaders to this event. Yet for all their talents, they recognize that they have very limited ability to influence what happens under healthcare reform. They can't change readmission penalties, for example.

Waste, on the other hand, is internal. It's something they can presumably control. Maybe that's why they were so excited about their accomplishments and about what is left to accomplish. It was refreshing being the moderator of a discussion that for once, didn't focus on outside influences.

Instead, our discussion was proactive, with energized CEOs sharing insights about specific internal interventions they're leading at their hospitals and health systems to help drive cost from the system while improving quality.

We started with the premise that revenue cycle and supply chain initiatives over the past several years have yielded results, but are, in a sense, "over." Senior leaders have seen the results and know what to expect from them.

While that turns out to only partially be true, what got these CEOs excited was talking about process re-engineering.