Addressing $113 billion in cuts tops FAH agenda

Who: David Vandewater, 60

Serving as: Incoming chairman of the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents investor-owned hospital chains. His term is one year.

Resume includes: Current president and CEO of Ardent Health Services, Nashville, which he joined in 2001 when it was Behavioral Health Corp. Ardent operates 11 hospitals in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Previously, he served as president and COO at Columbia/HCA, CEO of Vista Hills Medical Center, El Paso, Texas, and executive VP and COO at Republic Health Corp.

Priorities during his term: The FAH, along with the American Hospital Association, is addressing the $113 billion in new cuts to providers. “We need to keep policymakers and politicians educated on the challenges we have in our hospitals and make them sensitive to the fact that providing care is expensive,” Vandewater says. The sector has already faced $320 billion in ACA-related cuts since 2010, the FAH said.

Focus on Medicare margins: With sequestration cuts included, Medi-care margins are projected to be negative 8% in fiscal 2014, the FAH said, citing Medicare Payment Advisory Commission estimates. “We think that we've given everything that we've been asked and we think it's time for folks to stop looking at Medicare to pay for everything else,” Vandewater says.