Alternative Revenue Streams
Alternative revenue streams include urgent cares, pharmacy, and value-based opportunities. The appetite for alternative revenue streams has decreased due to the pandemic.
Julie, the CMO of a health system in the Pacific Northwest, said that the biggest push they have had is to move toward value-based care. They have also been looking at ways to pull back on their fee-for-service side and reel some of those services back in. Meanwhile, David, the CEO of BB Healthcare Consulting, noted that their nursing school has been a great tool to navigate between becoming a magnet institution versus staying agile. He also pointed out that new revenue sources are not necessarily new, but there’s an opportunity to generate efficiencies by having physicians and providers in groups together. Lastly, Julie mentioned six investment areas for her health system: people, value-based care (through their partnership with Atrium), telehealth, hospital at home, expanding their academic health center, and opening urgent cares.
Human capital is the top priority for Michael’s organization right now in terms of new and diversified revenue streams. He mentions that they’ve started looking into the pharmacy business as it was a cheap entry and could provide them with 6.3 million in potential gains. David is focused on technology, such as telehealth and their EMR system, to create more efficiencies and reduce expenses. Finally, David Sack mentions that Virginia Franciscan Health’s biggest traditional opportunity is reducing length of stay and aligning labor with recruitment and retention.
Challenges
It is still a challenge to find new revenue streams due to the way that payers are behaving post-COVID. There are some traditional ways of generating revenue such as freestanding eds, but there is also an emphasis on monetizing capabilities that already exist within the organization such as Teleconsult and telehealth. Building consensus and coalition building is key when it comes to identifying and trying new revenue streams, and physician engagement is essential when making decisions.
Keys to Success
The key to success in any healthcare initiative is to get buy-in from all the stakeholders involved. This includes physicians, nurses, and other individuals such as younger generations. In order to do this, it is important to have transparency and to always keep the organization’s mission in mind. It is also important to have a structure in place that can evaluate new ideas and determine which ones should be acted upon. Finally, it is important to take off one’s blinders and be open to innovative ideas and strategic partnerships.
The panelists’ advice was to stay grounded, take learners into community hospitals, be innovative and creative, and to keep moving forward in a fiscally conservative way.
