Chief financial officers employed by struggling hospitals do not have high hopes for their longevity: a new survey says that more than 60 percent expect to lose their jobs within two years.
The survey, which was conducted by the firm Black Book, found that 61 percent of hospital CFOs who said their institutions were struggling expected to be out of jobs, according to Black Book's announcement. Among the leading reasons for their expected dismissal: their revenue cycle management (RCM), staff and solutions have been stuck in a fee-for-service approach for too long and had been unable to make the transition to capitated or other forms of payments.
Many of the CFOs said health IT was the primary reason for their RCM issues. Forty percent of CFOs said they were forced to postpone revenue cycle software transformations due to a botched electronic health record process, along with health information exchange and portal expenses.
Hospitals, whether financially healthy or not, are already under financial pressure. Moody's Investors Service reported last year that the growth of hospital expenses outpaced revenue for the first time in memory, while patient volumes fall. And CFOs have been pressed to be more holistic in how they approach their job duties.
"Hospital viability has never been more thoroughly secured to a single organization venture as revenue cycle management transformation," Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book, said in the announcement. "And CFOs in struggling hospitals are in a very perilous position as the risk models are still being charted while limited funds remain for next generation RCM tools."
Meanwhile, CFOs who work at more financially stable hospitals appear to be in much better shape. Forty-one percent of those CFOs in fiscally healthier hospitals say their facilities are moving "full steam ahead" with next-generation RCM tools and preparing for the switch to new payment risk models, according to the survey. And 91 percent of these CFOs have either fully committed to next generation RCM, currently have implementations underway, or plan to either outsource or purchase new RCM software by late next year.
To learn more:
- check out the Black Book announcement