Shouldice Limburg

The health plan rate has been increasing at least 20% each year and has added significantly to the hospital’s operational cost. We will also create questionnaires and perform surveys and inform our employees of our financial issues and why the health plan needs to be restructured with marginally higher co-pays, prescription costs, and deductibles. The results of this information will shared with hospital staff to determine health plan will offer the best solution for our organization.

Impact to Healthcare organizations - These increases in cost raise questions of health care expenses at the hospital level. As higher profits are sought, the cost will become unstable for all, thus causing many to postpone going to the doctor. However, there are many complicated problems associated with our healthcare system. We will focus on main issues that can correct many related problems within the current structure. More importantly, we need to find ways to ensure all Americans have access to health care; and we need to hone in on how we can get the best value for the $2 trillion dollars we spend annually on healthcare.

The healthcare system in America started as a predominantly volunteer system where patients were required to pay little to nothing for treatment. Since it began, the healthcare industry has seen tremendous changes that have transformed it into a business entity which has operations like financial management, strategic planning and functional specialties to keep the industry viable. The industry is one of the largest in the country employing 15 million people with a projected increase of jobs with 3 million jobs annually. As the healthcare industry continues growing, services and personnel are changing, and various dynamics are coming into play to accommodate changes (Smith, Saunders, Stuckhardt, & McGinnis, 2013).

One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to reduce healthcare spending in the US (DeMichele, 2015). However, the passage of the ACA has spurred activity that is counter to this goal of decreased spending in the form of increased hospital consolidation which many studies show has led to higher prices. While, there are many other effects of hospital consolidation such as the impact on quality of care or innovation, these topics are beyond the scope of this paper.

This course is designed as an introduction to the terminology, processes, functions, and financial reports commonly encountered in health care operations. This course introduces the concepts of basic managerial financial functions, such as budgeting, reimbursement methods, and the responsibilities of health care financial

Healthcare is a very complicated manipulative system. The way to adjust this system is to initiate modification from all angles, from the bottom to the top. We can take out costs by abridging and regulating so much, especially in the billing and electronic medical record system. We also have to modify operation patterns.

Implication of this shift for hospitals is very important because hospitals inpatient have decreased. Hospitals are losing more money due to the growth of ambulatory care facilities. Ambulatory care facilities can affect hospital fiscal health by attracting many profitable services away from the hospitals. Consumers are saving more money because they can get good quality of care for less money and less hospital stay than hospitals. This can impact health care delivery system because they will be more competition between those ambulatory care facilities and hospitals.

From 1991 going forward, the health care environment again experienced fundamental changes as a result of the deregulation of hospitals which according to Ingols and Brem (as cited in Swayne, Duncan, and Ginter, 2006) was occurring for the first time in a decade. According to the authors, the impact of the move was immediate. Following the deregulation, the financial viability of most hospitals was

If the hospital focuses on processes, people and resources, this can be achieved at the most cost-effective way as possible. Manatt (2013)

The future and direction of health care has been the topic of discussion amongst politician and U.S citizens today. There are several challenges surrounding the future and strategic direction in which health care should be heading. Accreditation, quality of health care and organization’s compliance; access to health care, maintaining a skilled workforce, information technology and pay for performance are some of the challenges that currently presenting itself in healthcare today. If health care is not dealt with appropriately it will have a significant effect an impact on the strategic direction in the future and direction of care.

Study and analysis of the health care systems have become a necessity to improve its performance over time as it must meet a number of often conflicting objectives such as providing better and more efficient patient care while minimizing the cost of health care and resources (1, 2). Hospital management as an important component of healthcare systems may face with numerous challenging tasks while achieving these goals (2-4). In a hospital system, the flow of patients is a determinant factor that affects the performance of healthcare delivery processes. The decision problems of a hospital are directly related to and affected by the month to month changes in patient flows. The short-term forecasting of patient flows is the fundamental input of short-term decision making and planning on hospital and laboratory equipment, staff resources, food and laundry service demands, and like it. Furthermore, the long-term forecasts of patient flows are vital to long-term planning decisions about resources and capital budgeting which it’s positive gains, in the long run, will lead to a sequence of capital expenditure (5). In this context, the knowledge gained from an accurate prediction of patient flows would provide valuable information for resource allocation and strategic planning and also has the potential to minimize patient care delays,

The hospital industry has seen a dramatic change since the 1960s. Millions of dollars were poured into the industry causing a huge boom in independent hospitals and respectively a large boom in insurance coverage. Eventually the government had to step back in and reassess their role in health care. Here is what you need to know about the industry. Types of Health Care Programs: - HMOs are Health Maintenance Organizations that provide health care for a fixed monthly fee. - PPOs are Preferred Provider Organizations are usually offered through large employers where patients can more options and not be as restricted as an HMO. Ambulatory health care services are those that are used on an

For several decades health care has been tied to the economy and with the current downturn we see continued efforts to control and reduce over-head costs. Health care organizations in their effort to become more efficient and address changes in the industry have altered their strategic business plans. Lee & Alexander (1999) researched organizational change in hospitals and their survival, in this paper I hope to discuss their findings and add other examples to validate their conclusions.

The hospital industry consist of privately and publicly owned and operated hospitals and medical facilities. The financial backgrounds of these assorted categories of organizations are sizeable and contrasted. Therefore, industry ratios are to be considered and evaluated from a greater proportion in order to identify with the financial data involving the industry as a whole (Dunn & Becker, 2013). Based on analysis and evaluation of the financial ratios gained from Nasdaq and Google Finance, it is apparent that the hospital industry is gradually rising and supports increase in profitability. These ratios are divided into several categories: Growth rates, financial strength, valuation, profitability, efficiency, dividends, and management effectiveness.

The problem at Memorial Hospital is the focus on costs instead of health care. When a health care provider does not take the primary business as the core value of the operation and make strategic and tactical decisions based primary on costs, it decreases the consumers’ (patients) satisfaction in long run. As consumers reduce or stop purchasing goods and services from the hospital, hospital may make more cost oriented decisions and falls into a negative cycle. Eventually the hospital may face the fate of loosing business to competitors and the possibility of closing the door.