3 Reasons to Fall In Love Again...With Healthcare Finance

Am I nuts? After all, this is slated to be one of the hardest years ever for many healthcare leaders. So challenging in fact, that many of you may even ponder leaving the industry altogether, but, here are three reasons why you shouldn't:

1.The Thrill of the Chase. Anything that comes too easy is, well, too easy. This year, as with the last few, CFOs will be slashing costs. However, what makes this year (as well as the next few) so thrilling is the prospect of finding new and innovative ways to reduce costs. Consider:

• Launching Lean and Six Sigma. These two process efficiency models have already likely made their way into your hospital or health system in the form of small revenue cycle projects . You've seen the success, perhaps it's time to roll them out on a larger scale. (Learn more about this in the April edition of HealthLeaders Magazine.)  
• Doing a spend analysis. The use of business analytic tools can shift processes from the transactional to the transformative, helping healthcare organizations to not just discover financial savings, but strategic opportunities as well.
• Enhancing quality. There are more than a few areas at any hospital that can stand some improvement and it's time to acknowledge all of them and strive to improve them. In nearly every instance, when you improve quality, you reduce your costs.

• Lowering readmission rates. Patient readmission is a highly costly problem for healthcare, yet, surprisingly, an area which consistently stymies hospitals and healthcare systems nationwide—innovation is a must to tackle this problem so think outside the box.
• Utilizing predictive modeling. This technology has come a long way from data trending and is now being used to actually help not only predict areas of business ripe for growth, or rife with loss, it can also help with patient care.

2.That Warm Fuzzy Feeling. Healthcare has the ability to affect people daily. Though uncompensated care, is certainly a challenge, the fact is you work for an organization where the main mission is to make people feel better. On the days in which your numbers just don't add up, remind yourself that it's about more than money. Walk the halls and talk to a physician or nurse about what they did that day. Then recognize that they can't do it without you.

Consider that while you may not be providing clinical care directly, financial folks are the backbones of these facilities. They ensure all the supplies and surgical equipment are there and they lead the charge when a new wing or new equipment is needed. And, although many of you have put your capital spend plans on hold (something you can learn more about in the March HealthLeaders Intelligence Report) your coffers will open up again soon.

3.The Future Looks Bright. According to the just released HealthLeaders Media 2011 Annual Survey, it seems that the national and local economies as well as the state and federal legislation are making financial forecasting challenging for most CFOs. However, in terms of the financial forecast for your hospital or health system, 49% feel strongly positive or positive, while only 14% felt negative.

Without question, the pairing of healthcare and finance has its challenging moments (i.e., the economic recession and healthcare reform). Moreover this relationship comes with a lot of responsibility, there are costs to contain, quality to improve, reimbursements to attain, patients to please, not to mention recruitment and retention to contend with.

Then again, what other job can give you that kind of riveting diversity? Yes, you may recall the thrill you felt when you first started in healthcare finance, when everything was new and exciting? Well, it seems that healthcare finance is going to give you that same rush of excitement this year and for many more to come.