HFMA Announces Best Healthcare Finance Article Award Winners

Chicago, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) announced the following three winners of its Helen Yerger/L. Vann Seawell Best Article Award for outstanding editorial achievement in hfm magazine in fiscal year 2018.

“Optimizing a Health System’s Post-Acute Care Network,” by Andre Maksimow and Dawn Samaris, published in the May 2018 online hfm Early Edition, explores the need of hospitals and health systems to include post-acute services in their strategic-financial plans going forward. The authors suggest health systems should perform detailed market assessments and planning to determine which areas of post-acute care can have a material effect on the quality and cost of post-discharge patient care in their communities. Then, through a proactive network design process, they should focus on those areas to develop and maintain aligned post-acute networks. Building a sustainable network involves detailed analyses, coordination of program development and contracting initiatives, due diligence in evaluating potential partners, and exploration of an appropriate range of alignment options.

“From Disparate Data to Informed Strategies Using Technology to Transform Quality, Costs, and the Patient Experience,” by Jennie D. Dulac, RN, and Walter W. Morrissey, MD, published in the February 2018 hfm Early Edition, builds on the premise that business technology combining clinical and financial information plays a leading role in performance improvement in the changing payment environment. Through an amalgamation of disparate data sources that can inform strategies, cloud-enabled analytics and reporting underpin an organization’s ability to achieve and sustain high-value care delivery, and they are critical elements of the cost of business. The authors suggest that, using such tools, hospital and health system managers and clinicians can assess clinical and financial performance to develop, execute, and monitor strategies that will drive the required healthcare change. Interoperability of data and analytics, they say, will facilitate enterprise-wide reporting across inpatient and ambulatory settings.

“Protecting Revenue at Risk,” by Warren E. Beck, Cherie Kelly-Aduli, and Brian B. Sanderson, published in the April 2018 issue of hfm, notes that since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has launched several quality programs that focus on value-based payment. For organizations to succeed within this challenging financial landscape, in which an increasing amount of their Medicare revenue is put at risk, leadership must have a thorough understanding of these often-complicated regulations and a set of strategies for successfully navigating them. The authors underscore the need for healthcare administrators to familiarize themselves with existing revenue-at-risk programs and learn about their requirements to be able to make the best decisions for their organizations and ensure the organizations thrive in this new environment,

Other high-scoring articles included the following:

“Using Predictive Analytics to Align ED Staffing Resources with Patient Demand,” Jeffrey Skinner, MHA, BSN, CEN, Raymond J. Higbea, PhD, FACHE, Debra Buer, and Chelsea C. Horvath, February 2018 hfm

“Rethinking Health Care's Triple Aim,” Jim Evans, October 2018 hfm Early Edition

“Two Sides to the APM Coin: Why APMs Work for Some and Not for Others,” Luis Rivera, MBA, December 2017 hfm

Winners of the Helen Yerger/L. Vann Seawell Best Articles award are selected by a panel of five healthcare leaders who review each article published in hfm. Articles are judged on the writer’s demonstration of technical quality and writing skills, and contributions to the literature of healthcare finance. Winning articles from each of the past three years are available at hfma.org/hfm/BestArticles.

hfm magazine is distributed as a benefit of HFMA membership. The current issue may be viewed online.

About HFMA  
The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) is the nation's premier membership organization for healthcare finance leaders. HFMA builds and supports coalitions with other healthcare associations and industry groups to achieve consensus on solutions for the challenges the U.S. healthcare system faces today. Working with a broad cross-section of stakeholders, HFMA identifies gaps throughout the healthcare delivery system and bridges them through the establishment and sharing of knowledge and best practices. We help healthcare stakeholders achieve optimal results by creating and providing education, analysis, and practical tools and solutions. Our mission is to lead the financial management of health care.

Karen Thomas
                    Healthcare Financial Management Association
                    708-492-3377
                    kthomas@hfma.org