Intelligence Unit
Special Reports
Special Events
Subscribe
Sponsored
Departments
- Leadership
- Finance
- Technology
- Physicians
- Community Hospitals
- Health Plans
- Marketing
- Quality
- Nursing
- HR
Follow Us
In Financial Forecasting, Time to Plan for the Worst
Karen Minich-Pourshadi, for HealthLeaders Media, October 10, 2011
Here are a few negatives to consider including in your projections:
- Even deeper cuts to Medicare and Medicaid
- Shifts in your payer mix, including payer consolidations
- Mergers and acquisitions affecting market share
- Large business closures or bankruptcies
- “Black Swan” events
With so much uncertainty on the economy and on Capitol Hill, creating a viable financial forecast to guide your organization is more complex than ever.
“The one thing that persists for CFOs today is the inability to plan,” laments Mahan. “It’s a never-ending, changing environment, and it makes our ability to forecast very challenging.”
Karen Minich-Pourshadi is a Senior Editor with HealthLeaders Media.
Most Viewed
Most Emailed
- Primary Care Docs Average More Hospital Revenue Than Specialists
- 69% of Employers Plan to Offer Healthcare Coverage After 2014
- How Chargemaster Data May Affect Hospital Revenue
- Building a Better Healthcare Board
- Q&A: Catholic Health Initiatives' New Senior VP for Capital Finance
- Hospital Pricing Irks Nurses; More Jobs, Less Pay
- ED Physicians Key to Half of Hospital Admissions
- Quiet ORs Better for Patient Safety
- CMS Seeks to 'Rapidly Reduce' Medicare Spending with $1B in Grants
- CMS Releases Hospital Pricing Data
Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
Jackie Larson (10/11/2011 at 11:34 AM)
This article does a great job of presenting the problem and framing the factors at play. Without a doubt, implementing best practice labor management solutions, and leveraging BI tools to help drive efficiencies (which improve patient care) is a measure to stop the hemorrhaging. Labor, after all, is anywhere from 50% to 70% of a healthcare organization's budget. While we have very little control over the external factors discussed in this article (flat patient volume and government cuts to Medicare and Medicaid), we have a lot of control over how we manage our organizations.