Sg2 Blog

Health care is dynamic, and external market forces are increasingly volatile. Health systems are beginning to see margins stabilize, but long-term financial strength continues to be top of mind for health care leaders throughout the nation. One way systems can look to diversify financial performance is through enhancing their value-based care (VBC) strategy, but how to best do that may take on man...

At Sg2, our job is to stay ahead of changing health care trends—and to help you, our members, proactively navigate industry change to benefit your top lines. Over 10 years ago, we introduced the smart growth concept because we foresaw the need for a course change in health care strategy. Smart growth challenged members to invest in services not just clinically appropriate, but also financial...

As care increasingly shifts out of the hospital, health systems’ goals for their ambulatory business also are shifting. No longer are innovator organizations content for these services to function strictly as feeders of an inpatient core; they expect ambulatory services to independently boost the bottom line. Achieving that goal, however, can be elusive. Success in the ambulatory arena is mo...

Just because healthcare organizations open their doors doesn’t mean that patients will show up. This was especially true during the pandemic as a pause on elective surgeries, lack of a transactional care and revenue led healthcare systems to struggle. Add to that inflation and the increase of nontraditional disruptors — whether tech, private equity or venture capital-backed firms or pa...

Many health care delivery organizations believe fee-for-service (FFS) and value-based care (VBC) economic models are at odds with each other. Many analogies highlight this divergence—with perhaps the most popular being the illustration of an individual with one foot grounded on the dock and the other foot on a boat slowly pulling away. While this visual is powerful, it overstates the necess...

Many health systems have intentionally delayed taking downside risk in payment contracting for many reasons. In some cases, organizations aren't ready to perform in these contracts. In too many cases, there's a detrimental level of risk aversion that's impeding health systems from margin growth, particularly in value-based care (VBC) arrangements. Health systems and provider organizations that suc...

Seeking to outrun the growing shadow of newer conferences like HLTH and ViVE, the 2024 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition brought together roughly 30,000 attendees to discuss the latest in health care IT trends and product developments. The topics covered were nothing unexpected: AI dominated session headlines and vendor pitches, but there was still plenty of attention spent on other ...

Editor’s note: Heather Ramirez, MS-HSM, Vizient Ventures Director, also contributed to this post, which was originally published on Sg2’s parent company Vizient Inc’s blog. As hospitals grapple with how virtual and digital health will change the health care landscape, it’s hard to ignore its continued influence and disruption since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly two ye...

Understanding the timeline: application process starts June 1, 2022 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) is Medicare’s established accountable care organization (ACO) program that allows for new participants every performance year (PY). To participate in MSSP, an organization must submit an application and be approved by CMS. For PY2023, the application process is as follows: An organ...

Imagine this scenario: a kindergartner—initially grappling with the basics of counting, addition and subtraction—manages to leapfrog several years of curriculum and advance her mathematical capabilities to a fifth grade level within a year. Such a feat would be recognized as a significant achievement. Now suppose the teachers at the school see these results and respond by saying, "Her ...