Comparative analytics gives CFOs insight into the cost of care
CFOs want to do financial analysis but spend the majority of their time moving data around, says Strata exec.
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Financial planning, performance and analysis is what CFOs want to do, but much of their time is spent moving data around, according to Frank Stevens, vice president of Financial Planning at Strata Decision Technology.
"They'll describe spending 60% of time moving data around between systems and spreadsheets," Stevens said. "They thought they would be doing financial analysis."
Strata provides cloud-based financial planning, analytics and performance tools to help CFOs make the shift to using data to help drive financial performance. The company has 2,000 hospitals and 400 health systems as clients, including Kaiser, Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain, OSF, Ochsner, Christus, Spectrum, Advocate Aurora Health, Yale New Haven and others.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Strata Decision Technology, formed in 1996, acquired EPSi from Allscripts for $365 million in 2020. It was a move CEO Dan Michelson said at the time would help solve the biggest problem in healthcare - the cost of it. EPSi is a provider of financial decision support for hospitals and health systems.
Strata's strategy is based on the generation of rich and trusted cost data which has been captured in the EHR, according to Leon Corbeille, director at Strata.
"We do that work to calculate cost for planning purposes," Corbeille said.
Comparative analytics compares the cost of such services as hip and knee replacements to show CFOs what these operations are costing their hospitals compared to those of their peers. Comparative analytics can compare the salaries attached to those services and patients. It can show the spend for various services lines, overhead, labor, revenue cycle, IT and supply chain.
THE LARGER TREND
Strata Decision Technology and the Healthcare Financial Management Association – which just concluded its annual conference in Denver, Colorado – released the results of a poll of 185 healthcare finance, accounting and revenue cycle executives. The survey showed that while 89% of healthcare organizations have cost-reduction programs in place, only 6% say these programs are extremely effective.
What's needed is for executive leaders and clinicians to have cost reduction conversations and to have an overall culture of accountability, according to the analysis released last month.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org
