The pace of hospital rating downgrades slowed in 2024: Five key takeaways
When combining the rating actions of the three rating agencies (Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Ratings and S&P Global Ratings), the number of downgrades (95) declined in 2024 while the number of upgrades (37) increased, compared with 116 and 33, respectively, in 2023. Rating agency downgrades versus upgrades, 2024 Many of the downgrades reflected ongoing expense pressure…
Medicare Part D drug price negotiations are set to include GLP-1s, but questions abound
GLP-1 medications made the second round of drugs that are subject to price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to a CMS announcement during the final days of the Biden administration. However, the future of Medicare’s price negotiation authority is uncertain following the transition of power in Washington, D.C. Congressional Republicans have criticized…
Hospital financials projected to continue trending upward despite various X-factors
Hospitals are coming off a year of improved stability that should continue even with looming questions and challenges for 2025, according to recent data and insights. As reported in December, Fitch Ratings upgraded the sector outlook (login required) for not-for-profit (NFP) hospitals to neutral/stable after more than two years in which the outlook was categorized…
Texas Health Resources enhances self-scheduling with flexible options
Amid expected growth in demand from patients to schedule their own clinic visits, an Arlington, Texas-based health system learned that in practice some patients want more than just the ability to go online to choose a visit time, date and provider. Officials for Texas Health Resources (THR) found that out while implementing a new self-scheduling…
Regina Herzlinger: Why it is important to champion innovation in healthcare
Regina Herzlinger, Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, emphasizes the importance of education in promoting innovation in healthcare. She highlights the need for healthcare organizations to consider the six exogenous forces of innovation, including competition, financing, technology, accountability, public policy, and consumer ratings. She also stresses the need for healthcare organizations to have a portfolio of revenue and supply sources, and the potential for technology to improve healthcare technology. Additionally, Herzlinger argues that education is crucial for sustaining innovation, particularly in the areas of technology, cost control, and consumer involvement.
Commitment and path required in change management to create a sustainable impact
In 2021, Carilion Clinic, a $2 billion revenue, eight-hospital integrated health system in Roanoke, Va., was facing a problem familiar to many health systems around the country: stubbornly high average length of stay (ALOS) that was hurting Carilion’s efforts to serve its community. The pandemic had exacerbated operational challenges and mitigated the effectiveness of previous…
Jeff Goldsmith: ‘Hospital mergers kill’: A case study in reality distortion
Last summer, The Wall Street Journal published an article reporting on a study by academic economists at Yale and the University of Chicago that reviewed the impact of hospital mergers.a The study’s authors argued that hospital mergers triggered a wave of layoffs by employers in surrounding communities. That finding caught my interest, so I read…
As data show a spike in spending on hospital services, new report lays out savings options
Accelerating hospital-focused expenditures helped spur a 2023 increase in national health spending, according to newly released data. Spending on hospital services surged by 10.4% for the year, up from a 3.2% increase in 2022 and 3.4% for the three-year period spanning 2020-22. The 2023 increase was the biggest seen since a 10.8% jump in 1990.…
Final bill ensures no loss of funding for Medicaid DSH payments, graduate medical education
The finalized continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government funded through mid-March includes key healthcare provisions. The bill that passed both chambers of Congress just before Friday night’s expiration of funding contained the same healthcare items as the version that failed to pass the House the day before. A key difference was the absence…
Healthcare industry predictions for 2025
HFMA Senior Editors Nick Hut and Rich Daly discuss what's likely to come in 2025 with regard to healthcare policy.