My second week was great and far more hands on than my first week. I began by sitting down with my mentor and learning about Banner Medical Group’s income statements and determining how to cut costs for the month of March in order to meet the budget. I learned a lot about the source of Banner’s revenue and its many inefficiencies. Insurance groups such as Blue Cross Blue Shield and Medicare negotiate contracts with the hospital so that they only have to pay a fraction of what they are billed. We hear every day how healthcare costs and insurance premiums are rising and how America is by far the most overpriced country when it comes to paying the price of being healthy. What we don’t hear, though, is the story behind all of it. The current medical billing process is highly outdated and puts large nonprofit hospitals at a disadvantage. The laws restricting these organizations allows insurance companies and customers to manipulate hospitals’ lack of freedom to get more money from them. Hospitals see an average of 10% reimbursement for the services that they provide. Medical care in America is the most expensive of any first world country, but this is partially as a result of hospitals increasing prices with the expectation that they will only receive a small portion of what they bill.
Later I learned about the specific quality metrics that Banner looks for in order to implement a system of quality based medical care. These break down into customer metrics, or how satisfied the customer is and operating metrics or how healthy the customers are after visiting the hospital. The most important of these are the likelihood of the patient to recommend the hospital to others and the patient readmission rate. Banner has implemented specific action plans in order to encourage its employees to meet a high criteria for both of these metrics. Unfortunately, when I tried to determine what specific actions were taken, I could not find them anywhere on the web. Moreover, I do not yet have access to the Banner intranet where this information can be found, but I promise to tell you as soon as I can.
I learned a lot this week, and I’m excited to learn much more. Finance is very new to me, but I already love it. I’m excited to see where it takes me in the years to come.
