Consultant's Corner – Q&A with the Industry Experts
Question: What is the status of cost containment within healthcare services?
"A major trend in cost-containment is the shift of services from the inpatient setting to the outpatient ambulatory setting, and services in the outpatient setting shifted to the home care setting. Technological advances have been available for some time in order to make this possible, but the reimbursement structures did not encourage providers to do so. Value based purchasing is going to cut into inpatient margins and force care delivery to change. This is why you are seeing the rush of physician practice-hospital integrations and acquisition of ambulatory care centers. Big bed hospitals won't be as profitable anymore if the entire system is geared towards reducing hospitalization. - Christopher Majdi, MS, CHBC, CBA, CVA. Certified Medical Practice Appraiser & Broker"