For-Profit Hospitals For-profit hospitals or investor-owned hospitals are chains of hospitals which have been established for the need of providing extensive healthcare delivery services while initiated and/or operated for the primary purpose of being profitable. Unlike non-profit hospitals, for-profit hospitals attempt to secure a profit for their shareholders making them the highest charging hospitals in the U.S. (AHA, 2016). For-profit hospitals provide community benefits to their consumers as well but their services often are in contrast to those provided by non-profit organizations. For-profit hospitals do not receive tax benefits because these hospitals are owned by investors looking to make a profit thus they operate under the legal …show more content…
In 2015, companies like HCA and LifePoint have been diligent in cutting cost to increase patient volume. Through cutting costs and adopting new initiatives, for-profits are now beginning to be more preferred for some customers rather than non-profits. Another advantage for for-profit hospitals, and as a result of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act a boost in the form of a better payer mix, has suggested a decline in bad debt expenses. Another advantage is the type of facilities for-profits offer, because they are for-profit they are keen in keeping up with technology, current developments in health and medical research and offering state of the are facilities that are technology based to attract …show more content…
They serve a critical role as teaching institutions, and are often the first choice for trauma care. Furthermore, public hospitals provide a large amount of unreimbursed care (AHRQ, 2010). Since they are typically big in size they offer a sustainable amount of employees, yet patient-to-doctor ratios don 't tend to be very good due to all the customers needing service. This leads into to wait times which are another disadvantage; you are almost certainly going to encounter some wait time when visiting the ER, which can vary depending on the time of day and the nature of your emergency. Lastly some would argue there isn 't much in the way of personalized care because nurses are often overloaded with patients. In comparison, this type of entity experiences more customer volume, but in what other ways do non-profits, for-profits and government hospitals stack up against each
Bigger hospitals increasing market share Loss of Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement Decline in revenue Loss of patients
The challenges that all acute care hospitals and facilities faces are the demand for highly specialized services has increased. The US population is constantly aging and the elderly tend to need more acute care services. Because many people lack health insurance, they tend to use emergency rooms in the hospitals as their source of care. The increase demand in acute care prompted hospitals to expand their facility
The current health care landscape has been characterized by large scale consolidation and vertical integration of payers and providers. This has led to a handful of dominate players with substantial influence, and an increasing overlap in responsibilities between payers and providers. Although payers and providers have traditionally been on opposing sides, battling each other about quality of care versus cost-effective care, they are shifting to working together to achieve better value.
The health care organization with which I am familiar and involved is Kaiser Permanente where I work as an Emergency Room Registered Nurse and later promoted to management. Kaiser Permanente was founded in 1945, is the nation’s largest not-for-profit health plan, serving 9.1 million members, with headquarters in Oakland, California. At Kaiser Permanente, physicians are responsible for medical decisions, continuously developing and refining medical practices to ensure that care is delivered in the most effective manner possible. Kaiser Permanente combines a nonprofit insurance plan with its own hospitals and clinics, is the kind of holistic health system that President Obama’s health care law encourages. It still operates in a half-dozen states from Maryland to Hawaii and is looking to expand...
William & Torres provided a table to reflect hospitals ownership, and noted that some hospitals, while owned by one type of entity, may be operating under a contract by another entity, such as a hospital management company (Williams & Torrens, page 185). Some of the largest groups of hospitals in the nation are nonprofit community hospitals (Williams & Torrens, page 185). Nonprofit entities, including hospitals, function under special provisions of corporation law in each state, and under federal and state tax provisions that recognize their community service function (Williams & Torrens, page 185). The nation has approximately 1 million nonprofit entities of various sorts and hospitals have long been a traditional service provider in the nonprofit sector (Williams & Torrens, page 185). Nonprofit entities are generally exempt from most taxes at the federal, state, and local levels including income and property taxes (Williams & Torrens, page 185). These facilities are governed by a community based board that has ultimate authority for running these entities. Sponsorship for a nonprofit can come from various organizations, unlike other hospitals with traditional religious sponsorship (Williams & Torrens, page 185). A small percentage of the nation’s hospitals are operated by for-profit businesses (Williams & Torrens, page 186). For-profit hospitals have owners and issue stock to those owners to reflect their equity position (Williams & Torrens, page 185). For-profit hospitals are not just accountable to the community but must also provide a return on investment to the shareholders; they expect to generate a profit to pay a return to the equity inves...
A recent phenomenon in the health services is the burgeoning of outpatient healthcare centers. Particularly vigorous growth has been observed in centers that perform diagnostic tests and simple surgeries and procedures like colonoscopies. At the current state, outpatient care centers outnumber hospitals in Pennsylvania. Furthermore, these centers now perform one of every four surgical and diagnostic procedures in the state (Levy 2006). However, the trend applies nationwide, and other states could easily follow suit. Many critics have commented on the negative and positive aspects of this trend. What remains to be determined are the long term effects (on health and the economy) of this paradigm shift, in terms of the wellness of the community as well as economically. Proponents of the movement have pointed to the lower overhead for these clinics trickling down to lower costs for patients. However, critics skeptically question whether the real benefits are for the patients or simply as a mechanism to stuff physicians' wallets. When considered as firms in the marketplace, it is evident that these two groups, both servicing the health needs of the community, have vastly different balance sheets and income statements. This transfers over to a difference in operational functionality, profitability, and cost structure. Furthermore, the disparity of financial motivations that is visible in the varying profit margins is of concern to the community. All of these are important considerations to be made when considering the economic implications of this new phenomenon.
Over the last 5 years the healthcare system has begun to transform. This transformation includes a focus change to preventative care to the new health conscious consumers and the reduction of healthcare costs (PR Newswire, 2013). This change comes from the consumers of healthcare as well as new laws such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This has created a need for hospitals to enter in partnerships to create hospital systems such as Centura Health. These hospital systems are expanding the continuum of care to include everything from preventative care, emergency care, and finally end-of-life care. This creates a need to monitor competition and create ideation plans to increase likelihood the consumer will use Centura Health over the competitors.
With these types of organizations they have different methods of payments and reimbursements. They have guidelines through the government that they will have to abide by. The government sponsored payers are Medicaid and Medicare. The majority of patients that are treated are on Medicare or Medicaid. With patients not insured each type of organization handles reimbursement differently. For- Profit hospitals it is bad debt, which is when charges of patient are written off. With not –for –profit organizations it is considered charity care. This type of care has to be documented and reported on tax status.
Hospital A before the merger was a for-profit hospital, relatively new facility, in east side of town. It consisted of 110 hospital beds, 8 of which were reserved for transitional care. Services provided were: general surgery and same day surgery, full-service rehabilitation department and radiology department. Other services included kidney dialysis center, on-site retail pharmacy, blood bank, women’s center e...
Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Staff Analysis Statement of Problem HCA, after following a conservative financial policy since its establishment, has entered the new decade preparing to make some changes in order to realign their financial strategy and capital structure. Since its establishment, HCA has often been used as a measure for the entire proprietary hospital industry. Is it now time for the market to realign their expectations for the industry as a whole? HCA has target goals that need to be met in order to accomplish milestones in the future.
Competitive advantage matters greatly to those responsible for the management of healthcare institutions. Together with rapidly escalating healthcare costs, increasingly complex medical technologies, and growing regulatory and legal pressures, healthcare organizations face a critical need to improve the quality of care at reduced costs (Cu...
This paper will propose the major steps that Caring Angel Hospital (CAH) could take to achieve each of the following goals: Improve the quality of care, add value to the organization, improve employee morale, design an efficient organizational chart, create a strong team environment and create the hospital’s competitive edge. It will also recommend one approach that the hospital could use for acquiring a larger market share given the prevailing financial circumstances. It will investigate two value-added services that CAH could offer to strengthen its value proposition and examples of the advantages of those services.
However, according to Jenna Flannigan, write at Healthline.com, America’s current for-profit system allows for competition between medical and pharmaceutical companies which drives prices up astronomically. “In countries where health insurance is government-run or nonprofit-run, there is no profit factor to drive up prices…For example, a typical bypass surgery in the Netherlands costs about $15,000 while in the United States it costs about $75,000” (Flannigan). This figure illustrates how the US’s needless competition between private, for-profit organizations make medical care unnecessarily unattainable to those who aren’t very affluent or do not have comprehensive medical care. These bloated prices do not even contribute to better care a majority of the time, as pointed out by political consultant Karin J. Robinson. “Here in Britain, for instance, we spend about 8% of the country's annual GDP on health care, compared to 15% in the US, and yet the overall health of the population is similar, with perhaps even a slight advantage for the UK” (Robinson). America’s current system is far more expensive, but for what reason? A healthcare system should be driven a will to help those in need, not for the personal gain of companies that are rife with greed. America needs to follow the path of other first-world nations and take a different approach to
...staff would not be required to put in the overtime to compensate for the lack of workers. Patients would no longer have to suffer the neglect of the staff because he or she was too busy. Making sure the patient gets the best quality care reduces the time spent for recovery. Reducing the time spent for recovery increases the organization’s finances. Providing a safe facility also reduces the expenses on the private hospital’s budget. Ensuring a patient is safe can reduce potential use of ongoing treatment and services. Hiring the appropriate nursing staff needed can save the organization money. Instead of cutting back on staff, more staff needs to be hired to fulfil the needs of the patient. In the economy today, private hospitals need to focus on the overall long term effects of each action opposed to quick reactions resulting in financial strain for the facility.
Healthcare organizations are designed to meet the healthcare needs of individuals and promote a healthy community. The three healthcare organizations that interest me are: The Heart Hospital Baylor of Plano, Texas Health Center for Diagnostics & Surgery Plan, and Parkland Health and Hospital System. Due to evolving healthcare industry, focusing on just patients and physicians is no longer a marketing strategy. According to Mycek (2015), “Marketing teams need to expand their consideration set and focus on the new 5 P’s of Healthcare Marketing” (p. 1). The new 5 P’s of marketing now impact the marketing potential of healthcare organizations by offering changes in sales rep – physician access, purchasing, formulary decision making, and growing patient empowerment. The new 5 P’s of marketing are: Physicians, Patients, Payers, Public, and The Presence of Politics.