By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    learn to recognize and treat yeast infections
    Most Commonly Asked Questions About Yeast Infections
    November 17, 2021
    Advanced lung cancer diagnosis systems used by doctors
    Advanced Lung Cancer Diagnosis Systems Used by Doctors
    March 6, 2022
    The Top Benefits of a Wearable Blood Pressure Monitor Watch
    The Top Benefits of a Wearable Blood Pressure Monitor Watch
    June 13, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Life Expectancies and Lethal Injections
    May 6, 2015
    The Future of Healthcare and Big Pharma is in Big Data Analytics
    February 5, 2021
    Financial Assistance for Clinical Trials
    September 16, 2015
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Healthcare 2014: A Retrospective
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Policy & Law > Health Reform > Healthcare 2014: A Retrospective
BusinessHealth ReformPolicy & LawPublic Health

Healthcare 2014: A Retrospective

Abby Norman
Abby Norman
Share
6 Min Read
Healthcare 2014
SHARE

Healthcare 2014

Contents
  • Looking Back & Looking Ahead:
  • What You Need to Know About Healthcare Right Now.
  • Looking Back & Looking Ahead:
  • What You Need to Know About Healthcare Right Now.
  • Looking Back: Healthcare 2014
  • Number of Hospitals
  • Hospital Leadership
  • Still Not Enough PCPs
  • Healthcare IT, Still Slow on the Uptake
  • Medicare, Medicaid and Funding
  • ICD-10 Will Arrive – Finally

 

Looking Back & Looking Ahead:

What You Need to Know About Healthcare Right Now.

  


More Read

Healthcare and You: 3 Legal Situations to Be Aware Of
Collecting Small Patient Balances: A/R Best Practices
Status Update on Reform Law’s Temporary High Risk Pools
The Role Of Second Opinions In Medical Errors
The Time Bomb No One Is Talking About

Healthcare 2014

 

Looking Back & Looking Ahead:

What You Need to Know About Healthcare Right Now.

  


Looking Back: Healthcare 2014

As 2014 draws to a close, many of us in the healthcare industry are looking back at the year we’ve had and reflect on what worked, what needs to change and what we can expect for 2015. As an industry, healthcare saw a continued move towards accountable care, shared decision making, value-based purchasing and patient satisfaction measures. Buzzwords abound, there was a lot for everyone – providers, patients and payers – to juggle this year. And it looks like the trend is apt to continue into 2015.

Number of Hospitals

To provide a little perspective, according to census data from the American Hospital Association, there are just over 4,000 hospitals in the United States. Mergers and acquisitions between these hospitals has actually gone down since 2013 – at a rate of about 61 %.

Hospital Leadership

In executive leadership, we saw an increase in the number of “outside” hires for c-suite positions – as many as 60% of those in executive positions were hired from outside the organization – which is an interesting trend, considering that c-suite placement is up 37% from the previous year. Perhaps if all the local talent has been tapped for these positions, hospitals have needed to look elsewhere.

Still Not Enough PCPs

A major, ongoing concern for these execs remains the shortage of primary care physicians – 68 % reported this as a top concern. This might be why the use of locum tenens physicians in hospitals reached 90% in 2013 – a near 20% increase from 2012.

Even with the perceived physician shortage, many hospitals had plenty to be proud of this year: The Joint Commission’s recognition of Top Performing hospitals rose by 11% this year. No doubt due to a shift in focus to value-based purchasing, quality improvement and utilization review programs are booming. Not a moment too soon, either: data from the same report showed that medication errors are present in as many of half of discharged patients.

Healthcare IT, Still Slow on the Uptake

Tracking incidences such as these might become easier when more hospitals embrace the technology available to them – of those 4,000 some odd hospitals in the U.S. only 205 have hospital-branded mobile apps that can be used by patients – 34 for those are for children’s hospitals. The lack of healthcare technology as embraced by these organizations accounts for, in large part, the very low number of hospitals that have met Meaningful Use Stage 2: as of November, only 840 had reached this benchmark.

Medicare, Medicaid and Funding

When it comes to government funded programs, hospitals that are not participating in the Medicare expansion this year can expect to lose $423.6 billion in federal funding between now and 2022. Almost all hospitals in the U.S. receive some kind of Medicare/Medicaid payment or funding for services rendered.

Medicare has released its fee schedule or 2015, which includes for the first time a chronic care management payment schedule which will support physicians in treating chronically ill patients. This appears in conjunction with the transition to the value-based payment model, which is also making its official debut this coming year – along with another major implementation that it feels like we’ve been waiting for forever; ICD-10.

ICD-10 Will Arrive – Finally

October 2015 will mark the compliance deadline for ICD-10, but providers and hospitals are cautioned that just because the date has been pushed out for years doesn’t mean they should slack on their preparations for the change – ICD-10 boasts 8 times the number of codes as in the current ICD-9.

With more patients insured, through Obamacare and employer mandates to cover employees that meet certain criteria, it’s likely that more patients than ever will be seeking care. These patients are among some of the most chronically ill and have many comorbid conditions: 1 in 5 hospital stays includes a principal or secondary diagnosis of a mental health condition.

2015 will be a big year for healthcare, and we’ll finally start to see some of the payoff from the ACA, the continued innovation around healthcare technology and ICD-10 and, of course, the continued forward march of healthcare reform.

And, of course, should we injure ourselves in the march – there’s an ICD-10 code for that (Y93.01).

Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share
By Abby Norman
My name is Abby Norman and I am a healthcare blogger. With over 10 years of experience in the medical field, I have developed a passion for helping others understand the complexities of healthcare.

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Image
Business

Concierge Care for the Masses

April 25, 2012

Mistakes Practices Make On Their Website and Social Media

April 4, 2016
Policy & LawPublic Health

Overview of the FDA Approval Process

September 27, 2017

With Health Care Spending Still on the Rise, Payment Models Begin to Change

February 13, 2012
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?