Hospital executives are responding to this year's healthcare reform laws by cutting expenses, with the goal of more closely aligning their per-patient costs closer with what Medicare pays, according to a new survey from the American College of Healthcare Executives.
The Chicago-based professional organization surveyed 539 CEOs in August and found that more than 75% of top officials are planning to cut per-patient costs and study ways to avoid penalties for preventable readmissions in the next 12 months in response to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The survey was provided to Modern Healthcare on Tuesday ahead of its public release.
"Hospital CEOs are actively taking steps to ensure their communities are going to benefit from the advantages offered by health reform legislation," ACHE President and CEO Thomas Dolan said in a news release.
For example, 72% of the CEOs said they plan to forge closer alignments with physicians to benefit from incentives for care coordination, better quality, patient safety and lower costs. Additionally, 68% said they plan to obtain subsidies through last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for electronic health-record systems.
Two-thirds said they planned to study ways to avoid infections as a way to avoid penalties, and fewer than half were planning to find ways to decrease the average length of patients' stay or partner with community organizations for wellness activities, the survey found.
