Biomedical subjects

D F Beck

Publications and source records attributed to D F Beck.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

The managed care time clock: what's making it tick?

Continued and even accelerated growth in managed care is expected. Managed care organizations achieve their objectives through pricing practices, carefully defined provider networks, risk-sharing reimbursement, and medical care management. These organizations are succeeding in managing cost and at the same time are experiencing equal or better medical outcomes. This article will examine some of the elements necessary to provide a successful managed care organization. It will show how each facet of a managed care organization supports all other facets.

Actuarial Analysis↗

PubMed1994

Cash is king.

Cash is so important that a hospital or other business can operate at a loss as long as it does not run out of cash. A business must close even if it is operating at a profit if it has no cash. Bills are paid against cash and not net income. The most important source of cash in a hospital is accounts receivable. If the chief financial officer manages receivables well, everything else seems to be manageable. Cash is often misunderstood and confused with profits. Cash is critical everyday, while profits are never critical.

Accounts Payable and Receivable↗

PubMed1991

Survival through productivity improvement.

There are dozens of additional case studies as well as success stories. The number of ways in which the information can be presented is limited only by the creativity of the user. In order of importance, the three principles remain 1. Convert all data to ratios. 2. Study emerging trends in the way the ratio changes over time. 3. Compare changes over time as well as static ratios to an outside source. To begin this program one needs to see what information is available at a particular hospital. If no other acceptable statistic is available use adjusted patient days. It is important that a productivity tracking system not be delayed until a system for statistical reporting is developed. It is also important to keep the system simple. Productivity monitoring is difficult because it requires a new perspective. We are used to using historical data and unique characteristics of a hospital in the budget process. Productivity gains require a detached perspective. Often only an outsider can identify some examples of overstaffing. The process is difficult, but it is not complicated. Productivity experts tell us we can produce a service faster, cheaper, or better, but not all three. Health care quality control ensures a better service. A standard cost accounting system for the health care industry may provide a less expensive service through better cost control. Productivity--the ratio of work output to resource input (health care costs)--can be increased. To make productivity improvement work the users must take the view of the entire institution rather than that of a department. Productivity measuring is necessary to ensure the survival of hospitals. This process could have saved many of the hospitals that were forced to close, and it could improve the financial health of many hospitals today.

Budgets↗

PubMed1990

Health care costs: the other point of view.

Health care delivery in America is not efficient. Hospitals are not efficient and many are still wasteful. Some of the most blatant wastes in hospitals are staffing patterns that developed during the years of cost reports. Spending patterns become the norm, rather than excess, when they continue unabated for years. There are many reasons for cost increases in health care and specifically in hospitals. However, it is difficult to make these reasons add up to the total cost increase. No one has the answers; observation can only be made of what has been occurring and what continues to occur. Whatever the reason for the increase in health care costs, the consumer will bear the burden because of the circular flow of income and expenditures between the business sector and the household sector. Increased health care costs are passed on to the consumer in the form of increased expenditures for household goods and services or taxes. Ford Motor Company President Mr. Peterson says that $1,500 of every new automobile represents employee health care costs. The American consumer created the demand for health care services, and only the consumer can control the demand. One solution would be to let the consumer bear health care costs directly and remove the inefficiencies created by third party insurance carriers. This hypothesizes that the health care consumer is the most efficient shopper for health care services, and that third party insurance carriers are an important source of inefficiency in the health care delivery system. Many other solutions have been proposed by the government and by the insurance and health care industries, but most have only increased the cost of health care. Perhaps some day the health care industry will learn how to control the dynamics of this four-party purchasing decision. Until then, costs will continue to grow dramatically, and the executives of the industries who compete in the two-party purchasing system will wonder why the process is so complicated.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

PubMed1988