The Steps that Can be Taken to Address Financial and Reimbursement Issues
The most effective way for controlling costs, is to find out where specific waste and misuse of funds is occurring. This will help administrators to identify those areas where there is a lack of accountability and ineffective controls. Once this occurs, you would then begin seeking out specific recommendations from the different department heads about: how they can control costs and increase productivity. This will allow us to determine specific tactics that can be utilized on the divisional level to effectively control costs. (Santerre, 2010. pp. 416- 432)
The next step is to seek out other sources of outside financing (such as grants). These can be used to help modernize the facility and provide funding for new programs that are in demand. This will allow the hospital to be able to finance and expand the different services that they are providing. Over the course of time, this will help to increase demand within the community. While at the same time, it is able to keep the underlying costs manageable. This when the hospital will begin to: address the various financial challenges and cost controls that they are facing. (Santerre, 2010. pp. 416- 432)
To improve the reimbursement program, the hospital could look at: the outsourcing these services to third party billing companies and collectors. This will reduce the staff costs and it will increase the effectiveness of this program by: having these organizations focusing on helping the company to maximize its profits....
This is important, because if this kind of approach can be taken it will ensure that any kind of reimbursement programs will be effective at collecting the fees that are owed to facility. This will reduce costs and possible write offs that the hospital may have from uncollected debts. (Santerre, 2010. pp. 416- 432)
Clearly, California Hospital Medical Center has been facing a number of different challenges from: rising costs and a lack of financial controls. This is problematic, because it causes a number of different issues to affect the long-term viability of the facility. To address these challenges there needs to be a variety of changes including: identifying areas where there is a lack of accountability, seeking out / implementing specific recommendations for controlling costs on the departmental level, improving outside sources of financing and utilizing third parties for billing / collection procedures. If these kinds of changes can be implemented, this will ensure that facility is able to adjust to rising costs and the changes in various reimbursement programs. This will improve the financial foundation of the hospital, helping to eliminate the possibility of bankruptcy.
Bibliography
Pickert, K. (2010). The Unsustainable U.S. Health Care System. Time. Retrieved from: http://swampland.time.com/2010/02/04/the-unsustainable-u-s-health-care-system/
Santerre, R. (2010). Health Economics. Mason, OH: Cengage.
Zelman, W. (2009). Financial Management of Health Care Organizations. San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass.
