Michelle’s Commentary on American College of Healthcare Executives Survey

Special message from Michelle Podlesni regarding recent news of importance for nurses.

You are familiar with my mantra on how, as nurses, we need to be aware of the legislative, financial, technological and social issues affecting healthcare, so we are better able to reframe our roles, and to remain marketable. I’d like to comment on the recent survey published by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) on February 1st. To read the entire survey: https://www.ache.org/pubs/Releases/2018/top-issues-confronting-hospitals.cfm . This was ACHE’s annual survey of top issues confronting hospitals. I’ll address the top three concerns listed: Financial Challenges, Government Mandates and Personnel Shortages. Each of these were further broken down by the most pressing concern (code word for problem).

The NNBA promotes nurse entrepreneurship, and the number 1 factor to create a business for success, is solving a problem. I want to take the each of the top three problems and suggest possible business opportunities.

Under financial challenges, the #1 concern is Medicaid Reimbursement. If you are conversant with Medicaid rules and regulations, you could become a Medicaid Compliance and Prompt Pay Consultant. Perhaps if you already have a Consultant Business, you could add this specialty and approach. Create specific and targeted marketing material to highlight this expertise to assist the hospital in achieving compliance with Medicaid billing and turnaround timeliness in payments.

Under government mandates, the #1 concern is CMS regulations. For those nurses that have a wealth of experience in insurance compliance and regulations, consultant work as a CMS Compliance and Prompt Pay Consultant, Independent CMS Auditing Specialist, and RAC, MAC Auditors could prove very successful. RAC means Recovery Audit Contractors and MAC is Medicare Administrative Contractors. These are programs that monitor and audit Medicare payments to hospitals. A major portion of a hospital’s revenue is Medicare and Medicaid payments and services that evolve around this payor are in demand.

Let’s look at the third issue listed, personnel shortages with the #1 concern being a shortage of registered nurses. There are a vast array of opportunities for entrepreneurial nurses from individual independent contracting as a nurse provider or obtaining an outsourcing agreement with the hospital for an entire resource need. This can range from being a Nurse Staffing Agency to being a Case Management Business that will take over their discharge planning and transitional care needs. There are endless options of being a business that the hospital will outsource with to provide services that they don’t have or are skeletal at best.

By being aware of the top concerns of healthcare executives, and using their language which states their problem; you are better able to angle your consultant services and be understood and marketable. There are many more issues listed as top concerns in this survey and abundant opportunities for nurses to address each issue with business solutions. Nurse entrepreneurship, in its many forms, is rising to meet many of these challenges and is a substantial segment of nurses moving our profession forward.

© 2018 Michelle Podlesni, RN, CEO National Nurses in Business Association. All Rights Reserved.