Issues and Trends Affecting Nonprofit Hospital Financial Success

This report delves into the financial challenges and opportunities confronting nonprofit hospitals in the evolving healthcare landscape. It examines how trends such as technological advancements, rising patient expectations, and changes in reimbursement models impact the financial health of these institutions. The report highlights issues such as public program reimbursement rates, technological funding gaps, and the need to address the needs of underserved populations. It also explores opportunities for nonprofit hospitals, including community benefit programs, improved pain control, reduced complications, and leveraging data intelligence. The analysis covers both the threats and prospects of nonprofit hospitals in the 21st century, providing a comprehensive overview of their financial success and sustainability.

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Healthcare Finance Project
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A. The issues and trends in the healthcare environment that may affect the financial
Success of nonprofit hospitals
Introduction
The entire report will revolve around the possible issues and trends that are affecting the
financial success of the nonprofit hospitals to a great extent. In the recent times it has been
observed that the nonprofit hospitals were mainly formed with an intention to serve the people
free of cost who do not have required money for getting themselves treated but unfortunately the
most of the nonprofit hospitals are facing challenges on a daily basis. The above-mentioned
challenges are mainly in form of managing the endowment funds efficiently, raising required
money, appointing volunteer labor and searching the donation of goods.
Discussion
Analysis of Health Care Environment
It has been already said that there are some of the trends and issues in the environment of
the healthcare is greatly affecting the financial success with regards to the nonprofit hospitals.
Healthcare challenges and trends
Globally it has been greatly noticed that all of the health economies are facing more or
less the same challenges. Furthermore, the entrance of customer technology is giving a lot of
challenges to the healthcare hospitals. Firstly, it has been noticed that there is a increasing in
demand with regards to the healthcare delivery hospitals and it is the phenomenon that is taking

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place in each and every country across the globe. However, people are living much longer than
they used to live in the earlier times due to the advancement of technology in the healthcare
segment. On the other hand, the people are not only living longer but they are also living with a
lot of chronic diseases. The countries with a large number of clinicians need to strongly address
in taking the graduates into the medical schools and it is mostly failing in a lot of countries.
Moreover, it has been witnessed that the challenge is not at all limited to the doctors only as the
enrollment in the nursing colleges has also collapsed in some of the countries across the globe.
For a well-run health system it is an absolute necessity to make sure that the staffs are properly
trained as well as equipped and doing the correct tasks with regards to their skills and training. It
also reveals an ethical challenge as some of the countries try to recruit the nurses and doctors for
filling up the gap from the other countries by keeping out those societies of the professionals
related to the healthcare.
Secondly, quality also plays an important role for the healthcare hospitals especially for
the non-profit hospitals. In the current times, the patients have begun to exercise in terms of with
whom they will be involved in the healthcare hospitals and their right to choose the services. The
patients also highly demand the transparency of the processes and data in the hospitals.
Throwing light on the above-mentioned discussion it can be said that some of the healthcare
hospitals are lagging behind in this segment and they are struggling a lot in terms of proving
high-quality services so that their patients will be benefitted to a great extent. Arguably, it has
been also noticed that there are a lot of hospital acquired infections to the patients, wrong
surgery, medication errors and also other human related errors that has increased.
The global healthcare trends in the recent times are as follows: there is a rise of the social
media and informed patients. In the recent times, the patients are becoming more and more

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informed day by day because the healthcare hospitals are also quite active currently in the social
media. Secondly, the healthcare hospitals are also working as a network by being the part of the
communities and all of the communities are facing some kind of either disease or the
demographic challenges.
Challenges that are affecting the success of the nonprofit hospitals
There are a large number of challenges that are generally faced by the nonprofit hospitals
in the current time that is affecting their financial health to a great extent. Firstly, the healthcare
providers are struggling with the public program reimbursement rates and insurance
reimbursement rates but the nonprofit hospitals are struggling hard in this platform (Cleverly,
2017). It is already known that the nonprofit organization often tend to work with the uninsured
or the low-reimbursing government assistance benefits for instance the Medicaid. It has been
also noticed that the profit-providers and the private providers tend to move away the patients
that do not compensate well and in this particular scenario there are many nonprofit hospitals
who struggle and strive to work with everyone around them on a smoothly basis. Throwing light
on the above-mentioned segment it can be said that making the above-mentioned scenario work
is a financial challenge for the nonprofit hospitals (Thakur, Hsu and Fontenot, 2012). Secondly,
the technological advancement is also taking place in the entire healthcare industry in a rapid
way. Therefore, there are some of the funding related issues that are already faced by the
nonprofit hospitals which is making harder for them to use the technological advancements like
the private hospitals. Thirdly, the outdated MRI and CT scan machines also have a direct effect
on the financial health of the nonprofit hospitals as the energy used by them are lot more. Hence,
a lot of electricity is consumed in the process and in this segment the nonprofit hospitals have to

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indulge a lot of money in this segment. Lastly, it has been also observed that most of the
nonprofit hospitals are unable to cater the needs of the poor people who are suffering a lot as
they are unable to provide the quality of services to these people that are also one of the
prominent reasons why the financial health of the nonprofit organization is suffering a lot
(Saxton, Kuo and Ho, 2012).
Conclusion
The entire study revolved around the main matter that is possible issues and trends that
are affecting the financial success of the nonprofit hospitals. It has been noticed that the
technological advancement is one of the most prominent trends in the hospital industry in the
recent year in this situation the nonprofit hospitals are struggling a lot for including proper
machineries for their patients as it needs huge amount of money and in terms of funding they are
lagging behind.

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References
Cleverley, W. O. (2017). Essentials of health care finance. New York: Jones & Bartlett
Learning.
Saxton, G. D., Kuo, J. S., and Ho, Y. C. (2012). The determinants of voluntary financial
disclosure by nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41(6),
1051-1071.
Thakur, R., Hsu, S. H., and Fontenot, G. (2012). Innovation in healthcare: Issues and future
trends. Journal of Business Research, 65(4), 562-569.

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B. Financial threats and opportunities a nonprofit hospital faces in the 21st century
Introduction
This particular report will be discussing about the possible threats and the financial
opportunities that a nonprofit hospital faces in the recent rimes. It is greatly observed and also
witnessed that the nonprofit hospitals plays an important role in benefiting the communities and
people across the globe. The main mission and the vision of nonprofit hospitals mainly revolve
around providing the societal benefits to a great extent. However, the nonprofit hospitals are
getting quite successful for raising funds that is acting as one of their main financial
opportunities. On the other hand, in the 21st century the nonprofit hospitals are also facing a lot
of possible threats that will be discussed briefly in this entire report.
Discussion
Challenges
There are a lot of challenges that the nonprofit hospitals are dealing with in the recent
times. Firstly, there are new insurance exchanges that are one of the main parts of the entire
nonprofit hospitals but this scheme has also its potential downsides that are highly threatening
the hospitals. There are a large number of the nonprofit hospitals who have said that there are
some of the people who are signing up for the coverage via the marketplace will select high-
deductible plans that will shift the healthcare cost more into the patient and it is correspondent
with an increase in bad debts for the nonprofit hospitals (Saxton, Kuo and Ho 2012). Secondly,
the nonprofit hospitals are suffering from the financial threats and challenges because due to the

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shifting taking place in the private as well as in the private sector may cut back the services that
are quite less profitable in nature or even the services that goes out of the business. In the above-
mentioned scenario it can be said that the nonprofit hospital tends to reduce their community
benefits at an alarming rate because they suddenly stops giving the emergency psychiatric care.
The financing part of the nonprofit hospitals gets more challenging as they may not afford to
offer the services even if they are willing to give even though it is needed by the community. It
has been also witnessed that most of the nonprofit organizations do not tend to raise the prices
and they tend to respond to the financial crisis by cutting the services that are unprofitable in
nature for compensating the losses that can in return have an impact on the communities that
these hospitals serve. Thirdly, in the recent times it has been also observed that most of the
nonprofit hospitals are using some of the security devices and it has become one of the main
concerns for them. The nonprofit hospitals are having a lot of cyber threats in this 21st century
that can in return cause serious breaches of the security. Furthermore, along with the cyber
threats nonprofit hospitals are also facing the serious healthcare security threats in this the
employees working in such hospitals can play a vital part in breaching the security.
Opportunities
The opportunities the nonprofit hospitals faces in the 21st century will be discussed in the
below segment. Firstly, it has been witnessed in the recent time that the obesity is growing day
by day and it is also a serious concern for the people all across the globe. There are a lot of
private hospitals that are failing to address obesity in effective manner but the nonprofit hospitals
are getting the opportunity to positioning them uniquely for providing the community benefit
programmers. In the U.S. obesity is increasing at an alarming rate but there is hardly any kind of
effective of efficient community-based programmes so there is an opportunity for the nonprofit

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hospitals for adding to the ongoing evidence-base of efficient obesity programs and advance the
communication on the efficient strategies for reducing the obesity in the people. Secondly, the
nonprofit hospitals also have the opportunity to improve the pain control it will in return provide
some of the economic benefits such as, the patients will be discharged soon than they were
discharged in the earlier times, the patient satisfaction will also be improved, the treatment costs
for the chronic pain will be reduced and the legal liability will also be reduced (Pennel and et al,
2015). Thirdly, the nonprofit hospitals also have an opportunity in the 21st century is to reduce
complications with regards to pain medication this method also provides some of the economic
benefits such as, oin this case also the patients from the hospitals will be discharged earlier, the
treatment of the complicated cases will also be reduced to a great extent, patient monitoring costs
will also be reduced, the costs related to the patient readmissions will be reduced to a great
extent, the legal liability will be reduced and the patient satisfaction in nonprofit hospitals will be
improved more than it was earlier (Bazzoli, Fareed and Waters, 2014). Lastly, the nonprofit
hospitals also have a bright opportunity for bringing the intelligence because the nonprofit
hospitals are moving into the phase of the customers more and more.
Conclusion
In this segment the opportunities and the challenges that the nonprofit hospitals have in
the 21st century has been discussed. It has been witnessed more than the challenges the nonprofit
hospitals have opportunities in the 21st century. It can be said that if the nonprofit hospitals can
utilize the possible opportunities in the present time in an effective manner then they will be able
to provide better service to the people and the community to a great extent. On the other hand,
the nonprofit hospitals also need to work effectively on their possible threats so that the
community will not be deprived from their services.

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References
Bazzoli, G. J., Fareed, N., and Waters, T. M. (2014). Hospital financial performance in the recent
recession and implications for institutions that remain financially weak. Health
Affairs, 33(5), 739-745.
Pennel, C. L., McLeroy, K. R., Burdine, J. N., and Matarrita-Cascante, D. (2015). Nonprofit
hospitals’ approach to community health needs assessment. American journal of public
health, 105(3), e103-e113.
Saxton, G. D., Kuo, J. S., and Ho, Y. C. (2012). The determinants of voluntary financial
disclosure by nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41(6),
1051-1071.