In Congress and various states, policymakers are trying to curb the involvement of private equity in healthcare. Private equity firms make money by practicing “buy low, sell high.” Using their own capital and borrowed cash, they purchase undermanaged targets with growth potential at low prices, reinvigorate them, and subsequently sell the now-healthy targets to new buyers at high prices. If a target is not improved, it will be sold at a lower price, and the private equity firm loses money. All transactions are voluntary.
The American Hospital Association is raising concerns about hospital reporting requirements proposed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency under the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act. On July 3, the AHA penned a letter to Jen Easterly, director of CISA, saying the proposed requirements for hospitals are "redundant with what other federal agencies require and that they place an unnecessary burden on hospitals."
Leading Republicans from the House Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Judiciary committees want the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Government Accountability Office to review enrollment in Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans. The lawmakers are concerned brokers are improperly enrolling individuals in ACA plans by incorrectly filling out enrollees' income, so they receive the maximum subsidy from benchmark plans. “Individuals enrolled in this income cohort nationwide exceed the total number of potentially eligible individuals,” one letter reads.
The past few years have proven financially stressful for virtually all hospital-based organizations in the United States. But it’s absolutely clear that the level or degree of financial stress has been uneven across the U.S. healthcare system. Indeed, the intensifying financial pressure on hospital-based organizations has served to help further intensify merger and acquisition (M&A) activity nationwide.
EHRs in 10 years: What will be possible?
Health systems spend millions of dollars in EHRs and applications to leverage the platform's full potential. As companies add artificial intelligence, ambient listening and more, what will EHRs be able to do a decade from today? Health systems will have more data visualization, asynchronous care and care coordination capabilities than ever before. EHRs will also support a shift from reactive to proactive treatment prevention as organizations leverage predictive analytics to personalize treatment plans, reduce chronic disease and improve outcomes.
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