Budgeting

The ideal prescription for hospitals wanting to reduce their pharmaceutical costs could be tighter controls and staying on top of shortages.

The Texas hospital that wrongfully discharged now deceased Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan is already experiencing financial repercussions from the clinical slip-ups associated with the deadly virus.

A strong central leadership model is the primary differentiator between successful healthcare cost improvement initiatives and ineffective ones. This principle has three accompanying elements required to establish and manage a successful cost improvement program.

The powerful California Nurses Association has put Ebola on the bargaining table in its negotiations for a new contract with Kaiser Permanente. The health system hasn't responded to all of the CNA's demands.

Variations on traditional group health insurance via insurer-administered self-funding remain the norm for many large employers. But some health systems are considering alternatives in the face of high costs, new regulations and demand for more choice.

While reducing reliance on expensive inpatient care is a sensible goal for hospitals, the transition away from a bricks-and-mortar, fee-for-service model is creating tremendous pressures on chief financial officers.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recent 10-year projection of national health expenditures includes retail spending on prescription drugs, but a more complete picture of pharma spending would include the nonretail segment.

Most hospitals fall well short of their cost reduction targets, in part because the ability of chief financial officers to meaningfully impact how operational and clinical leaders approach the issue is limited.

While a few states are moving toward more healthcare price transparency, none have gone as far as Massachusetts to make the information accessible to consumers. But the most frequent early users of the newly disclosed data are probably providers.

In its semiannual Economic Outlook survey, Premier, Inc., asked hospital supply chain, materials management and C-suite executives to reveal the trends impacting their supply chains over the next year. Here are the top five issues.