Jason Greis, JD, serves as a Partner at McGuire Woods LLP.
On April 7th, Jason will moderate the panel "Key Strategies for Orthopedic and Cardiovascular Service Lines: What’s Your Best Advice to Improve Service Lines? What’s Working, What’s Not?" at Becker's Hospital Review 11th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place on April 6-9, 2020 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Jason's session, click here.
Question: What, from your perspective, is the biggest challenge about the future of work for hospitals, and what can they do about it? (i.e. automation, desire for more flexibility, clinician shortages, etc.).
Jason Greis: Patient care provided in a hospital setting is undergoing an existential transition, the pace of which has continued to accelerate. A growing volume of procedures once performed exclusively in hospitals are now being provided safely and at a lower cost in outpatient care settings, including ambulatory surgery centers, office-based laboratories and vascular access centers, among others. As governmental and commercial payers continue their efforts to “bend the curve” on cost and quality of care, hospitals will either need to re-focus on their core business of catering to the most acutely ill patients, pursue an outpatient patient care strategy through development, acquisition or joint ventures with providers, or engage in a combination of both approaches.
Q: What, if anything, should hospitals be doing now given economists' projections of a forthcoming economic downturn?
JG: The Great Recession forced hospitals to scrutinize their cost structure and eliminate what little frivolity may have existed on their balance sheets. Since then hospitals have generally operated more leanly, although significant financial variation continues to exist between urban and rural hospitals and health systems. As a result, preparing for the next economic downturn is even more challenging since most cost containment has been achieved. To the extent possible, hospitals with limited financial resources may wish to carefully consider how best to allocate their investment dollars to generate the greatest return on investment by “doubling down” on their existing strengths and core competencies. For example, hospitals known for their cardiac programs may wish to invest in new equipment or building out a new cath lab.
Q: What do you see as the most exciting opportunity in healthcare right now?
JG: Mergers and acquisitions between healthcare providers and payors are creating a growing number of more robust and sustainable high-quality care networks that have the potential to achieve the Triple Aim of improving the patient care experience, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of healthcare. Payors and providers that embrace this trend are likely to reap substantial reward over the next decade by bringing together complementary skillsets focusing on care quality and financial and data analytics.