Healthcare Business Models Clash with Reforms

Benton says heath systems executives would be well advised to generate a number of financial and budget models within the traditional planning and budget cycle.

"It's not really sexy, but one thing we strongly believe is that the depth and level of financial modeling and how you use spreadsheets to make sure the planning you are doing contemplates the future we are talking about and this transition to value-based payments," he says.

"I think of it as war-gaming and scenario planning. What we're really talking about is understanding your revenue at a level that a largely fee-for-service world has not had to contemplate. It's not just inpatient, outpatient and payer."

Successful modeling will drill down into operations to speculate on how they might be affected by the shift away from fee-for-service. "It's segmentation," Benton says.