Huron Healthcare Identifies Five Key Challenges Healthcare Providers Face In 2013

Insights for Achieving High Performance at Hospitals, Health Systems and Academic Medical Centers

Huron Consulting Group recently released a Huron Healthcare briefing entitled, “Insights for Achieving High Performance at Hospitals, Health Systems and Academic Medical Centers in 2013.”

Healthcare executives are working to bring together the core competencies that will position their organizations for success.  As they transition away from fee-for-service towards value-based pricing while simultaneously reducing costs by 20-30%, the objective is to create margins needed to thrive in the current marketplace.  In the briefing, Huron Healthcare experts identify the five challenges facing healthcare providers:

1. Aligning Stakeholders: Alignment of all stakeholders – especially physicians – around a value-based mission will be crucial.“Hospitals and health systems are looking to strategically align all of their stakeholders. The endgame is a value-based delivery system that is prepared to manage population risk. We will continue to see changes in the way physicians are employed, compensated and managed,” said Dr. Andrew Ziskind, managing director, Clinical solutions leader.
2. Evaluating New Care Settings & Primary Care Models: Telemedicine, home health, virtual care monitoring, and patient-centered medical homes hold the promise of lowering costs, improving care and increasing patient satisfaction. As a result, CEOs are either starting projects to test these new approaches or carefully considering how to integrate them in their organizations.“Access points for care delivery are quickly evolving to meet market pressures around cost, quality, and improved patient experience. Ambulatory settings, virtual visits, and home health are growing, and access to care is becoming customized and more convenient. New primary care models are a key component for success in the healthcare landscape. One key question is what role will traditional hospitals play in these models,” said Gordon Mountford, executive vice president of Huron Healthcare.
3. Forging New Relationships With Payers: From co-developing shared-risk pilot programs with insurers to looking at new models of direct contracting with large employers, CEOs are testing new approaches with payers.“New relationships between payers and providers hold promise for reducing costs, and aligning incentives in innovative ways. Transparency, communication, and a true spirit of partnership will be crucial in making those relationships win-win,” said Jeff Jones, managing director, Huron Healthcare.
4. Leveraging Size and Scale: Hospital CEOs are revisiting and exploring ways to leverage size and scale – including acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and collaboration.“It’s increasingly clear that most strategies around leveraging size and scale are dependent on the landscape of local markets. Organizations that already have an insurance plan and large physician group have very different approaches, opportunities and strategies than organizations with other variables,” said Curt Whelan, managing director, Huron Healthcare.
5. Using Advanced Analytics: Analytics – especially clinical analytics – are essential for making predictive, evidence-based decisions about where and how to provide efficient, effective clinical care, and for making accurate risk assumption calculations.“The new healthcare environment demands a more disciplined approach to performance improvement. Providers are taking a fresh look at opportunities to enhance accountability, and the metrics they need to help sustain change. A major component will be advanced use of analytics to build new competencies, as well as skills and tools required for fundamental changes to manage the cost of care and care delivery,” said Jim Gallas, managing director, Performance solutions leader.

The full briefing is available at: http://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/Insights/Perspective/Healthcare/AchievingHighPerformanceatHospitalsHealthSystemsandAcademicMedicalCenters.aspx.

In the next few weeks, Huron Healthcare will release the newest edition of the CEO Forum report. The report shares insights from hospital, health system and academic medical center CEOs about issues facing the healthcare industry. Read the 2012 CEO Forum report and learn more at: http://www.healthcareceoforum.com/.

About Huron Healthcare
Huron Healthcare partners with clients to provide comprehensive performance improvement solutions that improve quality, increase revenue, reduce expenses, and increase physician, patient, and employee satisfaction across the healthcare enterprise. Clients include national and regional integrated healthcare systems, leading academic medical centers, community hospitals and physician practices. Modern Healthcare ranked Huron Healthcare third on its 2012 list of the largest healthcare management consulting firms. For more information, visit www.huronconsultinggroup.com/healthcare

About Huron Consulting Group
Huron Consulting Group helps clients in diverse industries improve performance, comply with complex regulations, reduce costs, recover from distress, leverage technology, and stimulate growth. The Company teams with its clients to deliver sustainable and measurable results. Huron provides services to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations, including healthcare organizations, Fortune 500 companies, leading academic institutions, medium-sized businesses, and the law firms that represent these various organizations. For more information, visit www.huronconsultinggroup.com.