How bad is the financial crisis facing US hospitals? According to Ascendient’s exclusive analysis, 88% of health systems have experienced a year-to-date net loss in 2022 – compared to just 2% last year. Healthcare financial planning is never easy, but our new analysis of health system finances shows why it might be tougher than ever… 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

From a strictly financial standpoint, the Covid pandemic steadied the outlook for Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) across the United States, but all five factors responsible for that trend have now reversed sharply, suggesting a looming crisis. Perhaps the easiest way for hospitals to remain financially secure through periods of uncertainty is with a strong days… Read More

COVID-19 continues to have a dramatic impact on the financial performance of healthcare systems across the United States. Ascendient analyzed multiple data sources from the first year of the pandemic and found five key financial takeaways for hospital planning. In 2020, healthcare systems experienced: Decelerated net patient revenue growth Increased salaries and benefits Weakened profitability… Read More

Changing market forces across the healthcare industry will have major reverberations across key provider, consumer, and other stakeholder communities that operate both within and outside of traditional healthcare system networks. And as a new and dramatically different type of healthcare delivery model emerges, healthcare executives can no longer afford to embrace a “business as usual”… Read More