Mark Parkinson, AHCA/NCAL President & CEO, provided a leadership update at an early morning session at the AHCA/NCAL Spring Conference for Multifacility CEOs and Senior Executives. The former Governor of Kansas assessed the industry approximately one year from becoming leader of the association and here are his top 5 observations:
Quality is and will continue to be a reimbursement issue. The government won’t fund every health care practice and reimbursement will be tied to quality. Hospitals in the bottom quartile of ranking for readmissions from the previous year will have a percent of Medicare payments withheld.
There are multiple business models that will make it. The key is to diversify payer mix and product line, such as niche Medicaid facilities (head injury, Parkinson’s, MS, etc.), high acuity Medicare facilities, and assisted living facilities, just to name a few.
Old-style political relationships matter. Despite the advent of technology and massive fundraising, nothing trumps genuine relationships and handshakes.
Use of technology can improve performance & bottom line. From survey software, tracking/documentation software, readmission software, and EMR software, there’s no getting around the fact that technology is here to stay.
Interest rates are historically low. When you look at the history of mortgage rates for newly issued project pools and 10 year treasuries, they have gone way down from their peak at approximately 14% in December 1981 to nearly 3.9% in December 2011.
