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01/04/2018 

Ludi Newsletter

Dwindling reimbursement, regulatory uncertainty, and shifting payment models have hospital leaders navigating a rapidly growing landscape of choices. Here are our notes on what decision-makers need to know in the industry to stay ahead of the changing tides.

Handpicked Articles For You

Healthcare lawsuits and settlements made major headlines in 2017. Becker's Hospital Review published an article shedding light on 11 noteworthy lawsuits and settlements from last year. From a former head of IT accused of stealing $800k from California health clinics, to prosecutors charging four physicians in a $146 million healthcare fraud scheme, lawsuits and settlements were a huge industry storyline across the U.S. The litigation frequency should alarm hospital leaders who don't have systems in place that  log activity to ensure compliance.

More key trends from 2017, as we ring in the new year. Forbes released an article highlighting the three biggest healthcare stories of 2017, selected for their social, political and business impact -- and their potential to drive future change. One of the biggest stories of 2017 was major-merger volume. Anthem and Cigna, UnitedHealth's multiple acquisitions, and the massive proposed purchase of Aetna by CVS, which will change the care delivery landscape. Think you can guess the other two trends?

Bitcoin continues to make hospital executives wary. Early in 2016, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles paid $17,000 in bitcoin to hackers to regain access to its IT systems. Also, in the middle of 2017, hackers demanded $300 in bitcoin from every organization hit by the WannaCry ransomware. Modern HealthCare reveals the continuous worry of Bitcoin in the healthcare industry -- and whether hospitals should be using it at all.

 

 Insights From Us

In our latest article, "How to Employ Technologies that Don’t Torture Physicians"we discussed how with all the complications in healthcare, regulations, how to care for patients and remain profitable, physicians are being tapped daily for “extracurricular” management work. 

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Here's the summary breakdown: 

Physician Burnout: Physicians are being beat down with declining compensation they take home on an annual basis, grumpy patients armed with Internet knowledge, and daily-required documentation due to federal and state regulations. Add to that, all the new technologies that are employed today that haven’t eliminated physician’s workload and created more tension and frustration.

The Solution: Technology design has to be a “no brainer”; meaning it's intuitive and the physician needs little to no training to interact with your application design. What does this mean? There needs to be a payoff for the physician. Their life is directly impacted swiftly in a positive manner which in Ludi world means they get paid easily and more swiftly for their co-management, on-call, or medical directorship agreement they have with their partner hospital system. 

Read the Full Article Here

Can better tech result in more savings?

Struggling to figure out ROI of a technology investment for your hospital? An investment of less than 1% of spend can drive significant revenue. We can get you a cost and savings estimate on the potential impact of our spend management tool with just 4 inputs — try out our ROI calculator!
Calculate Your ROI

Quick Tips: 3 Factors That Help Hospitals Save on Physician Payments

Opportunities to reduce costs on physician payments for administrative duties are usually overlooked because of legacy operational processes in place. Most often, savings are readily available with stricter adherence to contracted duties and payment terms through software that automates these processes. Here are three key factors that help hospitals save on physician payments:

Pay only for duties that are part of contract. If you are using paper time logs or excel spreadsheets that the doctor has to fill in manually, there are sure to be duties that get submitted that are not part of the physician agreement. By using software, you can make it easier for your physician stakeholders to log time and duties that are prepopulated from the duties of their agreement.

Pay only for time logs submitted when they are due. Finance is always a little reluctant about languishing time logs because they don’t know their potential liability. Using a software solution makes it easier for hospitals to enforce submission timeframes.

Know what your spend is and where to manage more effectively. Hospitals may know their total spend for physician administrative duties, but they often don’t have a specific breakdown of those costs. If you don’t know what you’re spending, how do you know where to manage that spend more effectively?

Ludi Wishes You A Happy New Year! 

With 2018 just under way, we're already hard at work to help you better manage physician contracts and capture more reimbursement.

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Here at Ludi, we are ringing in the new year with excitement for what 2018 has to offer in an age of rapid change and disruption in healthcare.

Wishing you the best in the new year, and looking forward to exploring opportunity to improve processes and drive profits at the hospital level.

Best to you and yours,

- Gail Peace, 
CEO, Ludi