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Containing revenue-cycle costs.

Healthcare organizations can achieve revenue-cycle improvement while maintaining optimum staffing levels by taking a three-step approach-developing a plan, measuring costs, and using benchmarks to measure performance. Planned cost reductions can be achieved without a negative impact on the organization. Cost-reduction strategies should look at purchased services, staffing, and the cost-to-collect ratio. Healthcare organizations should reach target performance levels before implementing a cost-reduction strategy.

Accounts Payable and Receivable↗

The changing costs of radiation treatment for early prostate cancer in Ontario: a comparison between conventional and conformal external beam radiotherapy.

PURPOSE: Prostate cancer represents a large part of the workload for radiation oncology departments in Canada. Recent evidence suggests that conformal external beam radiotherapy improves results. The planning and treatment process for conformal patients requires a greater amount of resources that are in short supply in Ontario. An understanding of these differences is important to provide an accurate estimate of future radiation needs of the province. These differences can be quantified in a cost model that portrays the direct costs of delivering external beam radiotherapy in Ontario. With a developed cost model, a prospective direct cost comparison between standard four field external beam radiotherapy versus conformal radiotherapy in early stage prostate carcinoma was designed. METHODS: Activity based costing has been used to create a model of radiotherapy related costs for prostate cancer. A process map was developed which separated the process in five activities for conventional radiotherapy and six activities for dose escalated conformal radiotherapy. Time was recognized as the important cost driver within each activity. The time required for pre-treatment preparation (CT planning, dosimetry, simulation, and other preparatory work) and actual treatment times were collected prospectively. Treatment times were collected in 414 patients. The annual costs of capital equipment purchase costs and specialized construction of hospital space for radiotherapy equipment were amortized using a 6% discount rate plus the cost of annual maintenance. Indirect costs were not included in this cost analysis. RESULTS: An activity based costing model using time as the primary cost driver reflects the additional costs of conformal over conventional external beam radiotherapy. The costs of single phase and double phase six field conformal therapy with 42 fractions delivered was 7867 Canadian dollars and 8227 Canadian dollars per patient. Four field single phase conformal therapy with 28 fractions costs 5723 Canadian dollars. The cost of conventional radiotherapy over 33 fractions was 3068 Canadian dollars. The majority of the cost differences arose from the cost of the additional time needed for treatment per day as well as the extra fractions per patient when compared to conventionally treated patients. The average treatment times per fraction for six field conformal, four field conformal and four field conventional have the median times of 22.72, 20.63 and 11.07 minutes respectively. Planning costs for conformal radiotherapy were up to three times the cost of conventional therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The direct costs of dose escalated conformal external beam radiotherapy are over 2.5 times that of conventional external beam radiotherapy for early stage prostate cancer. These direct costs are a reflection of the additional capital and human resources needed to provide state-of-the-art radiation therapy in the province of Ontario. Planning for radiation oncology needs should consider the additional costs of conformal external beam radiotherapy.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

Reducing overall health care costs for a city municipality: a real life community based learning model.

City municipalities implementing health and wellness programs patterned after North Little Rock, Arkansas, can significantly reduce the cost of health care for employees, as well as reduce costs associated with workers' compensation claims and lost time caused by injury. In addition to primary care services, effective programs include health risk assessments through pre-placement physicals, employee physicals, drug screening, employee health and wellness promotion programs, and immunization and registry. In implementing the program, a team from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Nursing worked with city officials to establish a steering committee, safety initiatives through first responders, systems for monitoring immunizations, criteria for pre-placement physicals, and an employee health and wellness program. While the benefits for the city are well documented, the contract also created opportunities for education, research, and services in a real life community based learning laboratory for students in the College of Nursing. In addition, it provided opportunities for faculty to participate in faculty practice and meet the College's service missions. The College's model program holds promise for use by other major health care centers across the region and nation.

Arkansas↗

The effect of recombinant activated factor VII in the treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage on health plan budgets.

Treating patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) using recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIla) has been found to improve survival and functional outcome. To examine how the introduction of rFVIla 80 microg/kg as a treatment for ICH affects the budget of a health plan, a decision-analysis model was developed which considered both short-term hospitalization costs and long-term management of disability. Assuming a health plan enrollment of 1 million members and initial rFVIla uptake of 50% in appropriate patients, the annual health plan cost may be expected to increase by dollar 64,781 (dollar 0.005 per-member per-month). With a 5% increase in uptake each year, the annual health plan's cost may decrease compared with the current budget within three years. The implications for this sample health plan's budget are modest in the first year, and a reduction in costs is expected within three years owing to improved functional outcomes of patients.

Budgets↗

The impact of public-sector expenditures for contraceptive services in California.

A methodology previously used to calculate the number of unintended pregnancies averted nationally through publicly funded contraceptive services has been adapted for a state-level analysis in California. An estimated 136,800 unintended pregnancies--which would result in approximately 36,000 births, 85,100 abortions and 15,700 miscarriages--are averted each year because publicly funded contraceptive care is available from clinics and private physicians in California. Federal and state expenditures of $46 million for contraceptive services in California in FY 1989 resulted in an estimated savings of $232-$509 million in public costs for abortions, for prenatal and maternity care and for medical care, welfare and supplementary nutritional programs during the first two years after a birth. These savings represent an average of $7.70 saved for each dollar spent to provide contraceptive services. This savings/cost ratio is 75 percent higher than that previously estimated for the United States as a whole.

Abortion, Induced↗

Hospice care: perspectives on a Blue Cross Plan's community pilot program.

A community approach to the provision of hospice care utilizing existing community institutions in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area was started as a pilot project among three entities: the Washington Home, a licensed, skilled nursing facility, which served as the hospice inpatient unit; Georgetown University Hospital and its home care program, which were to serve as the sole referral sources; and Group Hospitalization, Inc., the local Blue Cross Plan. Insufficient referrals resulted in expansion of referral sources to include other hospice home care providers and acute care hospitals in the general community. As other community hospices developed, the Blue Cross Plan expanded the pilot program and fostered the communitywide coordination of hospice services.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance Plans↗

Using claims data to monitor hospital utilization.

Controlling provider use is a continuing problem for health care insurers. This paper describes a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan system that places primary responsibility for inpatient admissions on participating hospitals and uses a dual monitoring approach. Expensive annual samples that review medical records against published criteria constitute the basic test of compliance. An inexpensive indicator is developed quarterly using automated universal claims review. Statistical methodology, costs, and savings for both monitors are described. The claims monitor uses diagnosis related group (DRG) characteristics to estimate the percentage of inappropriate utilization from historical values for the patient group.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance Plans↗