A recent report from the Healthcare Financial Management Association and Eliciting Insights, a healthcare strategy and marketing research company, found that 84% of health systems have cited lower payer reimbursements as a leading cause for low operating margins. 

After reading the insightful white paper "No Margin, No Transformation: Why not-for-profit health systems need positive margin" published by Deloitte, I was struck by the complex fiscal challenges healthcare institutions face today. As CEO of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), I am compelled to discuss the crucial role of philanthropy in contributing to healthy hospital margins.

While hospital and health system cuts and closures continue popping up in 2024, particularly across the maternity services side of healthcare, the closure status for certain hospitals remains in limbo, leaving many healthcare workers, patients, and community members searching for answers.

CommonSpirit CFO Dan Morissette said the Chicago-based health system expects to receive more than $1 billion in cash payments by end of 2024 or early 2025 on four one-time funding opportunities. 

Before she got into healthcare, Jennifer Rohs, vice president of revenue cycle at Detroit-based Henry Ford Health, was a professional opera singer. 

Some Nassau County Democratic legislators and community stakeholders are calling for an overhaul and oversight as Nassau University Medical Center, a 530-bed tertiary care teaching hospital in East Meadow, N.Y., faces significant financial struggles.

New York City-based Mount Sinai Health's Beth Israel campus will end its stroke and cardiac services March 10 due to voluntary staff departures since the planned closure of the hospital was shared in September.

The labor market pendulum is beginning to swing back in the favor of employers, but staffing shortages and controlling workforce costs are expected to continue to be a challenge for finance leaders for the foreseeable future. 

Up to 1 million residents in Arizona may have their medical debt forgiven through a new program the state's governor announced March 4. 

Hospitals that are designated as trauma centers charge patients more for non-trauma care than hospitals without that designation, according to a study published March 4 in Health Affairs.

Many hospitals and emergency departments have been forced to close in 2024 due to circumstances like high costs and shifts in care needs. 

Sanford Health is projected to save over $1.4 million within their perioperative supply chain. North Mississippi Health Services achieved annual savings of $8 million through a self-distribution management system.

Walgreens Boots Alliance will not be selling its Shields Health Solutions, a specialty pharmacy business, after initial reports that the retail company was looking to offload the pharmacy in January.

Chicago-based CommonSpirit is having significant challenges getting paid appropriately for care provided through some of its Medicare Advantage programs, CFO Dan Morissette said during the health system's Feb. 29 investor call. 

Only 34.5% of 2,000 hospitals reviewed by patientrightsadvocate.org were compliant with federal price transparency rules, according to the organization's semi-annual report released Feb. 29. 

Chicago-based CommonSpirit has made "solid progress" on its financial improvement strategy in the most recent quarter but is "certainly not where we need to be," CEO Wright Lassiter III said during the health system's fiscal second quarter investor call on Feb. 29.

Physicians are set to receive a 1.7% increase in Medicare pay effective March 9 as part of a $460 billion spending package congressional leaders released this weekend.  

After reporting $1.1 billion in net income in 2023, compared to a $715 million net loss in 2022, Jenni Alvey, senior vice president and CFO of IU Health, is pleased with how the health system is coming out of the pandemic.

Four of the major for-profit hospital chains operate 342 acute care hospitals across the U.S. and reported more than $112 billion in revenue combined in 2023.

From Change Healthcare confirming it was hacked by a ransomware gang to Allina Health announcing it will transition 2,000 IT and revenue cycle employees to Optum, here are 10 RCM headlines Becker's reported in February.