If you have questions about the new Rural Emergency Hospital model, we finally have some answers. Two years since Congress passed the law authorizing Emergency Rural Hospitals – and two months before billing can begin – we now know exactly what the new provider type will entail. With yesterday’s release of the Final Rule for… Read More

Warning: The next paragraph is going to sound like a brag, but it’s not. It’s actually leading up to a big worry that I have for hospitals and health systems, so please keep reading. At Ascendient, we’ve been doing healthcare consulting for nearly 30 years, and I can honestly say that I’ve never seen higher… Read More

You’ve heard the old adage to “fail fast, fail often, fail forward”? That seems to be the business philosophy at Amazon, which recently announced it would shutter the upstart Amazon Health division that had caused widespread consternation in traditional healthcare circles. (As healthcare strategy consultants, we shared some of that consternation, as you can see… Read More

Last week, CMS released its final rule for the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS), and a larger-than-expected boost in operating payments got much of the attention from healthcare journalists and membership associations like the AHA. But beyond the immediate (and somewhat deceiving*) headline that reimbursement will increase by $2.6 billion, we at Ascendient were… Read More

We’ve long argued that healthcare transformation is fundamentally changing the calculus on inpatient hospital rooms – flipping them from a financial asset to a financial liability. That’s especially true in rural areas, where a sparse population plus added staffing challenges makes it hard to cover the fixed costs of inpatient care. When Medicare officially begins… Read More

The top line: Accessible primary care is critical to population health – but problematic for healthcare facility planning. In one NC county, a healthcare system is partnering with a local church to improve accessibility with minimal investment in bricks and mortar. Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Cleveland County is one of the… Read More

In March, President Joe Biden announced a new test-to-treat initiative that allows some pharmacies to prescribe life-saving Covid antivirals for patients who walk in and test positive – a policy that begins to recognize the role of pharmacy in healthcare transformation. No more shuttling between a doctor’s office and pharmacy? That seems like a commonsense… Read More

Value-based care is a linchpin of healthcare transformation because there is simply no way to bend the cost curve without curtailing fee-for-service payment arrangements. While some traditional providers continue to struggle with the transition to value-based payments, national organizations like VillageMD clearly believe they have “cracked the code” for offering profitable primary care. VillageMD cares… Read More

What’s in a name? There’s a battle brewing over the familiar P.A. designation found in many primary care teams, and it’s just one more sign of the status quo resisting true healthcare transformation. As reported recently by Kaiser Health News, physician assistants would like to re-brand as “physician associates,” but doctors are fighting back, arguing… Read More

Our founder, Dawn Carter, wrote the following opinion piece with Joann Anderson, the outgoing CEO of UNC Health Southeastern in Lumberton, NC. A shortened version was published by the Raleigh News & Observer on Nov. 14, 2021. Rural healthcare is facing a crisis all across America, and North Carolina is no exception. From Belhaven to… Read More