Health Industry Issues in America Today Essay

Priorities & Predictions of Healthcare CFOs

The key take away from the article is that patient satisfaction will become the top priority for Chief Financial Officers (CFOs). Before the MACRA of 2015, hospitals and healthcare organizations gained a competitive advantage through a patient-centric approach. However, these organizations became highly concerned about patient satisfaction after the implementation of MACRA. As such, initiating improvements in the measurement and management of patient satisfaction become a strategic necessity. This has led CFOs to point out that in future, consumerism will become a key priority that warrants meaningful action (Health Research Institute, 2016). For the longest time, CFOs have realized the relevance of patient experience. Sadly, only a handful of healthcare systems and hospitals still do not have the necessary insights and tools to adopt a patient-centric strategy properly. They have cited lack of adequate data to generate an actionable plan as the main issue (Health Research Institute, 2016).

No health system or hospital is immune from this pressure. From intense competition in the industry to tense payer negotiations to policy decisions, CFOs in hospitals confront numerous economic determinants which are beyond the control of financial investment. However, the experience of patients with a care team or a hospital falls under the organization’s management. For these organizations to achieve financial viability, the CFOs must familiarize themselves with what was previously an unfamiliar chief competency: patient satisfaction (Dyrda, 2015). In previous years, patient satisfaction fell was outside the job description of CFOs. However, no healthcare organization can exist when their financial strategists and stewards are out of touch with patients.

The new trend is explained by the fact that CFOs are currently concerned with ensuring the organization’s financial stability. The government plans to withdraw billions in Medicare payments from facilities with poor patient satisfaction experiences. Currently, not-for-profit hospitals report an average of 4% operating margins while only a few of them can afford reimbursement cuts (Health Research Institute, 2016). Though patient satisfaction was a chief concern before, value-oriented care has brought them to the limelight today.

Moreover, the emergence of quality-based reimbursement and consumerism has underscored the significance of patient satisfaction. In fact, most Americans are members of the high-deductible insurance plans and consumer behavior is likely to change when they face potentially thousands of dollars in deductibles. MACRA revolutionized the practice of provider reimbursement which prioritizes patient satisfaction in determining Medicare…