Utilization of the Market Approach in Appraising Outpatient Enterprises
Healthcare related outpatient enterprises provide services that do not require hospital admission and may be performed outside the premises of a hospital. Similar to the valuation of any business, valuations of outpatient enterprises should include consideration of the three general approaches to valuation (i.e., the income approach, the market approach and the asset/cost approach). The specific valuation methods selected under each engagement will be guided by the facts and circumstances surrounding the hypothetical transaction of the subject property interest (e.g., availability of data, nature of the current transactional marketplace). This article focuses on utilizing market approach to value outpatient enterprises, while the other articles in this series address the use of an income approach and an asset/cost approach to value outpatient enterprises. (Read more...)

The Threshold of Commercial Reasonableness
Corresponding with a growing trend toward hospital-physician alignment, there has been increased federal, state, and local regulatory oversight regarding the legal permissibility of these arrangements. Most notably, there has been more intense regulatory scrutiny related to the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law, especially as they relate to potential liability under the False Claims Act. Due to the increase in healthcare transactions, opinions related to the threshold of commercial reasonableness of healthcare transactions are becoming an "increasingly important service offered by healthcare valuation professionals." This three-part Health Capital Topics series will address the components of a defensible commercial reasonableness analysis and the importance of this analysis in today's increasingly scrutinized healthcare marketplace. (Read more...)

Use of Technology for Patient Outreach
Since the passage of the ACA in March 2010, the healthcare industry has demonstrated "an increased commitment to health and healthcare quality," which aligns with the "triple aim," from the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care. The "triple aim" delineates objectives which should be met in order to achieve quality care, including improved health outcomes, achieving lower costs and better patient care. This first article in the four-part Health Capital Topics series focusing on population health will discuss how technology is being used to achieve the "triple aim," and why these efforts are important to population health as a whole. (Read more...)

2015 MPFS and New Quality Benchmarks
The second article in this three-part Health Capital Topics series focusing on quality trends in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) discusses the changes included in the 2015 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), which was finalized in November 2014. With many ACOs aiming to achieve "quality care rather than quantity of care," it is important to closely examine the changes in the MPFS, which include an increase in the number of quality benchmarks from 33 to 37 in order to earn shared savings. This article will describe those changes and their potential effects on the efforts of ACOs to achieve quality care. (Read more...)