Dive Brief:
- According to a new survey by Black Box, 91% of CFOs at hospitals with negative 2013 operating margins are prioritizing technology infrastructures to support value-based healthcare delivery models; currently, most of their hospitals' revenue arises from fee-for-service. The survey included financial executives from 566 hospitals and inpatient systems.
- Overall, 93% of struggling hospitals confirm their intention to use capital investments in the next year for coding, value-based support software, collections and revenue cycle management outsourcing.
- What is being delayed? Fully 84% of struggling hospitals are putting population health, analytics, physician practice acquisitions and recruitment, and patient engagement on the back burner. By contrast, 80% of CFOs at hospitals doing well say they intend to use 2015 capital expenditures for upgraded tools, such as dashboards, analytics and business intelligence, population health, physician portals, patient engagement solutions and continued acquisitions.
Dive Insight:
"Trends in Medicare reimbursement, declining inpatient volumes, rising expenses and bad debt have most hospitals across the country struggling to avoid a financial stability crisis," said Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book Market Research. The "frank reality," according to Brown, "is that outdated, understaffed and failing current solutions could quickly close a marginally performing hospital for good."
Black Box's hospital CFO survey seems to offer A Tale of Two Cities. What isn't clear is how many peasants, living close to the edge, will make it through the (technology) revolution, and what aristocrats will have to do to continue to prosper.
