1. “Rate of readmissions. Due to the potential penalties under the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, finance chiefs are tracking readmission numbers to project possible penalties ahead of time and gain insight into the factors that are contributing to unplanned readmissions.
2. “Patient experience. A significant domain {in valued-based programs] is patient satisfaction, which has captured the attention of hospital finance chiefs. The HCAHPS survey asks patients to score a hospital on items related to their hospital experience, and CFOs are getting insight by tracking those scores.
3. “Cost per visit. CFOs are looking at spending per patient visit to track the patient populations that are driving costs the most. By identifying the high-cost patient populations, executives from the finance side and the clinical side can come together to determine what steps need to be taken to get those costs down.
4. “Mortality rates. The outcomes domain of {value-based programs} includes hospital mortality measures. The mortality measures are estimates of deaths from any cause within 30 days of a hospital admission for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure and pneumonia. With the outcomes domain weighted heavily, … hospital finance chiefs should start tracking this measure.
5. “Hospital-acquired infection rates. Although tracking CLABSI, CAUTI and SSI rates may not be part of a hospital CFO’s daily routine, finance chiefs need to get involved in quality and infection control meetings to understand how the rates of those infections are impacting reimbursement.”
