This article from Fierce Health Finance caught my eye because it’s a truly bittersweet message:

Fitch Predicts Weak Patient Volumes for 2012. Basically, the message is, “it’s going to be bad, but not as bad as it will be later.”

Here are some highlights:

“For-profit hospitals showed weak growth during the third-quarter of 2011, and 2012 shows little prospect for improvement, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings.

However, the ratings agency noted that most for-profit hospital operators are in stable financial positions, with many of them having refinanced debt during an opportunistic window during 2011. As a result, few other than HCA have any significant debt service obligations prior to 2014.

The agency noted that a Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act that effects the individual mandate or Medicaid expansion could hurt hospital finances in 2014 and beyond.”

To learn more:
- read the Fitch press release
- here’s the Fitch report (registration required)

So, here’s the bottom line:

2012 isn’t going to be a great year for hospitals that rely on profits to survive.  But it IS going to be survivable. 

2014, however, is looking grim if the Affordable Care Act goes through the Supreme Court as expected. 

So my question is, what are hospitals doing right now to maximize their profits while the environment is relatively stable?  And what are they doing to prepare for 2014 when it’s going to get tougher?

For example, if a hospital is currently allowing thousands if not millions or dollars to float away through lax or inefficient collections procedures, or if they’re not pursuing insurance companies for every dime they’re owed, they’re literally putting their future on the line. 

And the clocks ticking!

Do you have any ideas for how hospitals can prepare now for tougher times ahead?  Any best practices your hospital or practice has adopted to start maximizing profits?  Share with us in the comments!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related posts:

  1. What Gives? Hospitals hiring Broke Doctors? What's more, the amount of hospitals employing hospitalists rose from...
  2. Have You Heard About the New Medicare Plan that’s Got Hospitals Upset? A recent NY Times article by Robert Spears entitled "Medicare...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.