Press Releases Archives - Strata Decision Technology

Expense Increases Slow Compared to Double-Digit Increases in July

CHICAGO – Sept. 25, 2024 – Performance metrics were mixed for many U.S. healthcare organizations in August, with patient demand stalling as expenses continued to rise, according to new data from Strata Decision Technology.

Health systems nationwide saw operating margins narrow again for the month. The median year-to-date (YTD) health system operating margin dropped from 2.1% in July to 1.9% in August. At the same time, the median YTD operating margin for hospitals rose slightly from 4.8% in July to 4.9%.

“This is the second consecutive month that we’ve seen operating margins tighten for the nation’s health systems,” said Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer at Strata Decision Technology. “As our largest healthcare organizations, these entities already struggle with thin operating margins and feel expense pressures on a magnified scale. While it’s encouraging to see expense increases slow somewhat compared to the concerning spikes in July, they remain on the rise with no signs of stopping.”

Hospital operating margins saw minimal change compared to the prior year, with the median change in hospital operating margin rising just 0.9 percentage point from August 2023 to August 2024. Margin changes varied by region, with hospitals in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic seeing the biggest decrease at 1.1 percentage point year-over-year (YOY), and hospitals in the South seeing the biggest increase at 1.9 percentage points.

Patient volumes dropped across most key metrics for the month, representing a return to declines seen in June after a rise in patient demand in July. Outpatient visits decreased 0.5%, observation visits were down 4.2%, and emergency visits decreased 4.9% YOY. Inpatient admissions increased for the month at 3.5% YOY. From July to August 2024, inpatient admissions decreased 0.7% but outpatient visits rose slightly, up 0.4%.

Looking at patient volumes across different service lines, infectious disease had the biggest YOY increase at 20.5%, due in part to recent increases in cases of pertussis, COVID-19, and other infectious diseases reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Patient volumes were mixed for the nation’s children’s hospitals. From August 2023 to August 2024, inpatient admissions increased 1.4% while outpatient visits decreased 5.4%.

Hospital expense increases eased somewhat compared to double-digit increases in July. Non-labor expenses rose faster than labor expenses for the month, with total non-labor expense up 6.2% YOY and total labor expense up 5.4% YOY. Total expense increased 6.2% from August 2023 to August 2024. Looking at specific non-labor expenses, supply expense was up 5.5% YOY compared to a 16.4% YOY increase in July. Drugs expense increased 4.6% YOY in August versus 17.3% YOY the prior month, and purchased service expense rose 12.0% YOY, the same level as in July.

Hospital revenues continued to rise across most metrics. Gross operating revenue and inpatient revenue both increased 6.1% YOY while outpatient revenue was up 5.6% YOY. By region, increases in gross operating revenue ranged from 4.6% YOY for hospitals in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic to 7.0% for those in the Midwest.

Read Strata’s Monthly Healthcare Industry Financial Benchmarks to learn more. 

About the Data 

This report uses data from Comparative Analytics and Strata’s StrataSphere^® database. Comparative Analytics offers access to near real-time data drawn from more than 135,000 physicians from over 10,000 practices and 139 specialty categories, and from 500+ unique departments across more than 1,600 hospitals. Comparative Analytics also provides data and comparisons specific to a single organization for visibility into how their market is evolving. StrataSphere is a unique and comprehensive data-sharing platform that helps providers leverage the power of a network that represents approximately 25% of all provider spend in U.S. healthcare. This report incorporates data from more than 600 hospitals from over 120 health systems with StrataJazz^® Decision Support, as reported in the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker^TM.

About Strata Decision Technology 

Strata Decision Technology, LLC provides an innovative, cloud-based platform for software, and data and service solutions to help healthcare organizations acquire insights, accelerate decisions, and enhance performance in support of their missions. More than 2,300 organizations rely on Strata’s StrataJazz and Axiom solutions for market-leading service and enterprise performance management software, data, and intelligence solutions. To learn more about Strata and why the company has been named the market leader for Business Decision Support for more than 15 consecutive years, please go to www.stratadecision.com.    

Syntellis Social Networks 
LinkedIn: Strata Decision Technology

Media contact: 

Sally Brown, Inkhouse 

[email protected]

Larger Organizations See Slight Drop in Operating Margins

CHICAGO – August 27, 2024 – Many U.S. healthcare organizations saw revenues and patient volumes grow in July, even as expenses continued to climb, according to new data from Strata Decision Technology.

Hospital and health system operating margins staggered. The median year-to-date (YTD) hospital operating margin decreased slightly from 4.9% in June to 4.8% in July.* For health systems, the median YTD operating margin narrowed from 2.3% in June to 2.1% in July.

“Improvements in patient volumes are a promising sign to start the third quarter, but the decline in hospital and health system operating margins coupled with double-digit growth in non-labor expenses such as drugs and supplies are concerning,” said Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer at Strata Decision Technology. “The industry will not be able to build lasting stability until we rein in rising expenses.”

Hospital expenses continued to grow in July, with non-labor expense increases outpacing labor expense growth. Total hospital non-labor expense jumped 10.8% from July 2023 to July 2024, driven by a 17.3% year-over-year (YOY) increase in drugs expense, a 16.4% YOY rise in supply expense, and a 12% YOY increase in purchased services expense.

Total labor expense rose 5.7% YOY and total expense increased 8.2% YOY. Expenses eased somewhat after adjusting for patient volumes. Total expense per adjusted discharge was down 0.6% YOY and labor expense per adjusted discharge decreased 4.0% YOY, but non-labor expense per adjusted discharge increased 1.9% YOY. 

Higher patient demand contributed to hospital operating margin gains in July. Patient volumes increased for the month after decreasing across most metrics in June. Outpatient visits rose 13.2% and inpatient admissions increased 8.2% from July 2023 to July 2024. Emergency visits and observation visits had minimal increases of 0.4% and 0.9% YOY, respectively. 

At the same time, patient volumes decreased across many service lines and procedures. Breast health had the biggest YOY decrease at 8.7%, according to the latest service line data from June. Looking at 15 common procedure types, inpatient primary knee replacement surgeries had the biggest YOY decrease in patient volumes at 19.3%. Outpatient positron emission tomography (PET) had the only YOY increase, with patient volumes up 3.8%. 

Higher patient demand contributed to gross revenue increases for the month. Gross operating revenue rose 13.9% from July 2023 to July 2024. Outpatient revenue increased 15.9% YOY and inpatient revenue was up 9.1% YOY.

Read Strata’s Monthly Healthcare Industry Financial Benchmarks to learn more. 

*The median YTD hospital operating margin for July represents a correction from a previous version of this press release.

About the Data 

About Strata Decision Technology 

Strata Decision Technology, LLC provides a cloud-based, enterprise performance platform for software, and data and service solutions to help organizations better analyze, plan, and perform in support of their missions. More than 2,300 organizations rely on Strata’s StrataJazz and Axiom solutions for financial analytics, planning, and performance management. Named the market leader for Business Decision Support for more than 15 consecutive years, Strata delivers first-class solutions and service, with an intense focus on accelerating innovation. For more information, please go to www.stratadecision.com.    

Syntellis Social Networks 
LinkedIn: Strata Decision Technology

Media contact: 

Sally Brown, Inkhouse 

[email protected]

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Patient Volume Declines and Rising Expenses Reflect Ongoing Volatility

CHICAGO – July 25, 2024 – U.S. health systems saw operating margins stabilize at the end of the second quarter, with the median, year-to-date (YTD) health system operating margin holding steady at 2.3% for a second consecutive month in June, according to new data from Strata Decision Technology.

While still narrow, it marks an improvement over median, YTD health system operating margins of less than 1% in the second half of 2023. Individual hospitals also remained on more stable ground throughout the first six months of 2024, ending the second quarter with a median YTD operating margin of 4.9% in June, down slightly from 5.0% in May.

“Hospital and health system operating margins leveled off in recent months, even as expenses rose and patient volumes declined in June,” said Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer at Strata Decision Technology. “While overall financial performance for these critical healthcare organizations has strengthened compared to recent years, they continue to experience significant market volatility.”

As a primary example, patient volumes decreased across most measures in June. Outpatient visits and observation visits both saw the biggest year-over-year (YOY) declines at 4.2%. The declines represent a reversal from YOY volume increases seen in May. The only metric to see an increase was inpatient admissions at 1.4% YOY. Volume declines were more significant month-over-month. Outpatient visits had the steepest drop at 10.2%, followed by emergency visits at 9.5%. Observation visits decreased 6.3% and inpatient admissions were down 5.5% from May to June 2024.

Hospitals continue to feel the weight of high expenses. YOY growth in labor expenses outpaced non-labor expense increases in June. Total labor expense increased 5.2% and total non-labor expense was up 3.3% from June 2023 to June 2024, contributing to a 4.8% increase in total expense over the same period. As with patient volumes, that represents a reversal from the prior month as hospitals saw some of the year’s first decreases in supply and drugs expenses.

Supply expense was down 2% YOY and 7.2% month-over-month in June, marking the first decline in the metric so far in 2024. Drugs expense dropped 5.4% YOY and 10.5% versus May 2024, marking only the second YOY decrease in that metric this year. Hospitals also saw overall expenses ease month-over-month. From May to June 2024, total expense was down 2.8%, total labor expense decreased 3.0%, and total non-labor expense was down 2.7%.

Rising expenses remain a concern for physician practices across the country. The median, total direct expense per physician full-time equivalent (FTE) was $1.08 million for the second quarter. That represents a 16.3% increase from Q2 2023 and a 2.1% increase from the first quarter of this year. By region, increases in the metric from Q2 2023 to Q2 2024 ranged from 13.6% for physician practices in the Midwest to 21.3% for those in the West.

High expenses contributed to ongoing increases in the level of investment needed to support physician practice operations. The median investment per physician FTE was $325,414 for the quarter, up 12.3% from the second quarter of 2023.

Read Strata’s Monthly Healthcare Industry Financial Benchmarks to learn more. 

About the Data 

This report uses data from Comparative Analytics and Strata’s StrataSphere^® database. Comparative Analytics offers access to near real-time data drawn from more than 135,000 physicians from over 10,000 practices and 139 specialty categories, and from 500+ unique departments across more than 1,600 hospitals. Comparative Analytics also provides data and comparisons specific to a single organization for visibility into how their market is evolving. StrataSphere is a unique and comprehensive data-sharing platform that helps providers leverage the power of a network that represents approximately 25% of all provider spend in U.S. healthcare. This report incorporates data from more than 600 hospitals from more than 120 health systems with StrataJazz^® Decision Support, as reported in the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker^TM.

About Strata Decision Technology 

Strata Decision Technology provides a cloud-based platform for software and service solutions to help organizations better analyze, plan, and perform in support of their missions. With the combination of Syntellis Performance Solutions’ Axiom solutions, more than 2,300 organizations rely on Strata to provide their financial analytics, planning, and performance solutions. Strata has been named the market leader for Business Decision Support for 18 consecutive years. By uniting these two industry leaders, Strata continues to deliver market-leading solutions and world-class service, with an increased focus on accelerating innovation. For more information, please go to www.stratadecision.com.

Syntellis Social Networks 
LinkedIn: Strata Decision Technology

Media contact: 

Sally Brown, Inkhouse 

[email protected]

Inpatient admissions see biggest increases as patient volumes rise

CHICAGO – June 26, 2024 – The median year-to-date (YTD) operating margin for U.S. hospitals was 5% in May — a significant improvement over 0.7% in May 2023 — but high drug and supply expenses remain a concern, according to new data from Strata Decision Technology.

The metric was up from 4.7% in April but down slightly from 5.2% in January. Margin changes over time, however, suggest ongoing financial instability for the sector. The median change in operating margin was up just 0.3 percentage point from May 2023 to May 2024 and down 0.9 percentage point from April to May 2024.

High non-labor expenses are one factor contributing to that instability, as hospitals continue to feel the strain of elevated drug and supply expenses. Total drugs expense was up 8.3% and total supply expense increased 8.1% year-over-year (YOY) in May, pushing total non-labor expense up 7.3% over the same period. Total labor expense was up 4.4% YOY and total expense increased 5.7% YOY.

“Hospital operating margin performance remains strong, as organizations see continued growth in both inpatient and outpatient gross revenues,” said Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer at Strata Decision Technology. “At the same time, ongoing expense increases are just one of many challenges facing the industry. Healthcare leaders must stay vigilant as they navigate their organizations through those headwinds.”

Growth in gross hospital revenues continued in May, but slowed somewhat compared to double-digit increases in April. Outpatient revenue again saw the biggest increases, with the metric rising 8% from May 2023 to May 2024. Inpatient revenue was up 6.7% YOY and gross operating revenue increased 7.7% YOY. May marked the 13^th consecutive month of YOY growth for the three metrics. Meanwhile, net patient service revenue (NPSR) per adjusted discharge was nearly flat, up just 0.1% YOY and down 4.3% month-over-month in May.

Patient volumes increased YOY across all metrics for healthcare organizations nationwide. Inpatient admissions had the biggest increase, rising 11.7% versus May 2022 and 6.1% versus May 2023 due in part to January’s expansion of the Two-Midnight Rule to Medicare Advantage patients. From May 2023 to May 2024, outpatient visits rose 3.3%, emergency department visits increased 2.3%, and observation visits rose 0.4%.

Patient volumes also rose across all service lines YOY, according to the latest service line data from April. The growth was a reversal from the previous month, when patient volumes decreased YOY across all but two service lines. The cancer service line had the biggest jump at 15.5% across both inpatient and outpatient volumes from April 2023 to April 2024.

High expenses also continue to pressure physician practices. The median, total direct expense per physician full-time equivalent (FTE) rose to $1.09 million for May annualized. That represents a 12.8% increase from 2023 and a 21.1% jump from 2022. High expenses contributed to double-digit increases in the level of investment needed to support physician practice operations. The median investment per physician FTE was $314,487 for the month (annualized), up 11.2% from 2023 and 17.8% from 2022.

Read Strata’s Monthly Healthcare Industry Financial Benchmarks to learn more. 

About the Data 

This report uses data from Comparative Analytics and Strata’s StrataSphere^® database. Comparative Analytics offers access to near real-time data drawn from more than 135,000 physicians from over 10,000 practices and 139 specialty categories, and from 500+ unique departments across more than 1,600 hospitals. Comparative Analytics also provides data and comparisons specific to a single organization for visibility into how their market is evolving. StrataSphere is a unique and comprehensive data-sharing platform that helps providers leverage the power of a network that represents approximately 25% of all provider spend in U.S. healthcare. This report incorporates data from 645 hospitals from 124 health systems with StrataJazz^® Decision Support, as reported in the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker^TM.

About Strata Decision Technology 

Syntellis Social Networks 
LinkedIn: Strata Decision Technology

Media contact: 

Sally Brown, Inkhouse 

[email protected]

CHICAGO – May 23, 2024 – The nation’s hospitals and health systems saw strong financial performance in April as patient demand and revenues rose, according to new data from Strata Decision Technology. 

April marked the 12^th consecutive month of year-over-year (YOY) gross revenue increases across both inpatient and outpatient metrics. Hospital outpatient revenue had the biggest increase, rising 15.3% YOY as demand for convenient outpatient services remains high. Inpatient revenue was up 11.7%, helping to push overall gross operating revenue up 14.1% YOY.

Healthy revenue growth contributed to steady hospital operating margins. The median, year-to-date hospital operating margin — which represents the average, actual operating margin for hospitals nationally — held firm at 4.7% for a second consecutive month.

“Hospitals and health systems continue to see encouraging financial performance as we head into the second quarter of the year,” said Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer at Strata Decision Technology. “The data indicate that many healthcare leaders are finding effective strategies to navigate persistent high expenses. They are successfully moving their organizations to more stable ground and away from narrower margins that plagued hospitals throughout 2023.”

Looking at how margins have shifted over time, the median change in operating margin rose 4.2 percentage points from April 2023 to April 2024, and was up 1.1 percentage point compared to March 2024.

Patient volumes increased across most measures in April for healthcare organizations nationwide. Outpatient visits had the biggest increases, up 12.9% YOY and 4.6% versus the prior month. Inpatient admissions were flat month-over-month but rose 9.7% YOY, due in part to the effects of January’s expansion of the Two-Midnight Rule to Medicare Advantage patients. Other volume metrics also increased YOY, with emergency visits up 3.3% YOY and observation visits up 0.8%.

At the same time, hospitals continued to feel the pressures of ongoing expense increases. Total non-labor expense had the biggest increase at 10.5% YOY, driven by sizable increases in supply expense (16.7%) and drugs expense (14.9%) over the same period. The increases were a return to recent trends after supply expense was essentially flat and drugs expense decreased in March. Total labor expense rose 4.1% and total expense was up 7.4% from April 2023 to April 2024.

Read Strata’s Monthly Healthcare Industry Financial Benchmarks to learn more. 

About the Data 

This report uses data from Comparative Analytics and Strata’s StrataSphere^® database. Comparative Analytics offers access to near real-time data drawn from more than 135,000 physicians from over 10,000 practices and 139 specialty categories, and from 500+ unique departments across more than 1,600 hospitals. Comparative Analytics also provides data and comparisons specific to a single organization for visibility into how their market is evolving. StrataSphere is a unique and comprehensive data-sharing platform that helps providers leverage the power of a network that represents approximately 25% of all provider spend in U.S. healthcare. This report incorporates data from 646 hospitals from 122 health systems with StrataJazz^® Decision Support, as reported in the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker^TM.

About Strata Decision Technology 

Syntellis Social Networks 
LinkedIn: Strata Decision Technology

Media contact: 

Sally Brown, Inkhouse 

[email protected]

CHICAGO, May 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Hospitals and health systems nationwide saw a sizable increase in delayed or missing payments in the first quarter, due in part to a recent, large-scale disruption to payment processing services, according to a new report from Strata Decision Technology.

Depending on the size of the hospital, estimated gaps in expected versus actual revenue ranged from 16.5% to 17.9% of payments for the first three months of 2024. The findings are among multiple analyses in the report, which includes data from Strata’s database of more than 1,600 hospitals. The report also examined the projected impacts of expansion of the Two-Midnight Rule, and rapid growth in outpatient surgeries in recent years.

The data on missing payments found that the largest and the smallest hospitals — as defined by annual operating expenses — were the most affected. Given that payments can take many weeks after the date of service to process, the shortfall for the largest U.S. hospitals started at 12.2% for services provided in January and rose to 21.1% by March for an average of 17.9% over the three-month period. The smallest hospitals had an average 17.1% shortfall for the quarter, with the gap swelling from 12% in January to 20.4% by March.

“Our data show that hospitals across the country experienced significant shortfalls in payment volumes in the first quarter that could have ripple effects throughout the year,” said Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer at Strata Decision Technology. “The long-term impacts of this disruption remain to be seen, but we will continue to monitor and report on hospitals’ financial performance in the months ahead.”

Impacts of the Two-Midnight Rule

A separate analysis found that expansion of the Two-Midnight Rule could affect more than 20% of Medicare Advantage encounters in 2024. The rule requires patients to be admitted as an inpatient if the treating clinician determines they require hospital care that extends beyond two midnights. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) first implemented the Two-Midnight Rule for Medicare in 2013 and expanded it to include more than 30 million people enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, effective in January of this year.

An analysis of Medicare Advantage encounters from 2023 — before the rule was expanded — found that 22.3% were held in observation status for two days or more. Expansion of the rule already contributed to higher inpatient volumes in the first quarter. In March, inpatient admissions rose 3.9% year-over-year (YOY) while outpatient admissions decreased 5.1% YOY.

Expansion of Outpatient Surgeries

A third analysis examined changes in the share of surgical procedures performed in outpatient settings. Starting in 2019, CMS removed certain surgical procedures from its inpatient-only list, allowing them to be covered in outpatient surgical centers. As a result, the share of surgical procedures performed in outpatient settings grew from 33.6% in January 2019 to 45% in March 2024. The shift was especially dramatic for certain high-volume procedures. For example, the share of knee replacement surgeries performed on an outpatient basis jumped from 20.1% in January 2019 to 80.7% in March 2024.

Read the Q1 2024 Strata Performance Trends report to learn more.

About the Data

The report uses data from Strata’s StrataSphere^{^®} and Comparative Analytics database. Comparative Analytics offers access to near real-time data drawn from more than 135,000 physicians from over 10,000 practices and 139 specialty categories, and from 500+ unique departments across more than 1,600 hospitals. Comparative Analytics also provides data and comparisons specific to a single organization for visibility into how their market is evolving. StrataSphere is a unique and comprehensive data-sharing platform that helps providers leverage the power of a network that represents approximately 25% of all provider spend in U.S. healthcare. This report incorporates data from more than 600 hospitals with StrataJazz^{^®} Decision Support.

About Strata Decision Technology

Strata Social Networks
LinkedIn: Strata Decision Technology
Media contact:
Sally Brown, Inkhouse
[email protected]

Infectious disease patient volumes rose above 2023 levels in March

CHICAGO – April 26, 2024 – U.S. hospitals and health systems showed strong performance throughout the first quarter as organizations benefitted from healthy revenue growth so far in 2024, according to new data from Strata Decision Technology.

The median, year-to-date hospital operating margin was 4.7% in March, as organizations saw an 11^th consecutive month of year-over-year (YOY) increases across gross operating, inpatient, and outpatient revenues. Looking at fluctuations in the metric over time, the median change in operating margin was relatively steady, down just 0.1 percentage point YOY and down 0.3 percentage point month-over-month.

“Hospitals and health systems across the country had promising financial performance in the first quarter, as operating margins appear to have stabilized for the time being,” said Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer at Strata Decision Technology. “At the same time, we saw some notable shifts in key expense, revenue, and volume growth metrics in March. If these changes persist in future months, it could signal that long-running industry trends are switching course.”

Hospital expenses continued to rise across most metrics. Looking back over the past few years, labor expenses spiked due to significant demand during the pandemic, but high inflation caused non-labor expenses to grow at a faster rate starting in late 2022. In March, however, YOY growth in labor expenses again outpaced non-labor expenses for the first time in 18 months, suggesting that the effects of inflation may be easing.

Total labor expense rose 3.5% versus March 2023, while total non-labor expense increased 2% YOY. Total expense was up 2.7% YOY. Supply expense was nearly flat with an increase of just 0.1% compared to the same month last year, while drugs expense decreased 2.8% over the same period — representing a reversal after both metrics saw double-digit YOY growth the month before. Total expense per adjusted discharge rose 2.5% YOY.

Hospitals also saw a shift in revenues as growth in inpatient revenues surpassed outpatient revenue increases for the first time since late 2021, reflecting tremendous growth in outpatient services in recent years. Inpatient revenue rose 3.7% versus March 2023, outpatient revenue was up 2.4% YOY, and overall gross operating revenue increased 3.1% YOY. Net patient service revenue (NPSR) per adjusted discharge rose 2.5% from March 2023 to March 2024.

To further reinforce the change in revenues, hospitals also saw inpatient admissions rise 3.9% YOY while outpatient visits dropped 5.1% YOY for the month. Implementation of the Two-Midnight Rule for Medicare Advantage patients starting in January 2024 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) contributed to the increase in inpatient admissions. The rule limits the number of days those patients can be held in observation status before they must be admitted as inpatients. At the same time, observation visits decreased 4.2% versus March 2023 and emergency department (ED) visits rose 2.6% YOY.

Looking at specific service lines, Infectious Disease had the biggest YOY volume growth in both inpatient and outpatient visits with an increase of 35.6% versus March 2023. Contributing factors likely include higher instances of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), COVID-19, influenza, and measles. From February to March 2024, however, infectious disease volumes decreased 8.2%.

Read Strata’s Monthly Healthcare Industry Financial Benchmarks to learn more.

About the Data

This report uses data from Axiom™ Comparative Analytics and Strata’s StrataSphere^® database. Comparative Analytics offers access to near real-time data drawn from more than 135,000 physicians from over 10,000 practices and 139 specialty categories, and from 500+ unique departments across more than 1,600 hospitals. Axiom Comparative Analytics also provides data and comparisons specific to a single organization for visibility into how their market is evolving. StrataSphere is a unique and comprehensive data-sharing platform that helps providers leverage the power of a network that represents approximately 25% of all provider spend in U.S. healthcare. This report incorporates data from 619 hospitals from 119 health systems with StrataJazz^® Decision Support, as reported in the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker^TM.

About Strata Decision Technology

Syntellis Social Networks
LinkedIn: Strata Decision Technology

Media contact:

Sally Brown, Inkhouse

[email protected]

CFO Outlook Survey Reveals a Need for Organizations to Do More with Data

CHICAGO – March 13, 2024 – Despite ongoing expense pressures, leaders at hospitals, health systems, and other healthcare organizations nationwide are optimistic their organizations will build financial health throughout 2024, according to a new report from Strata Decision Technology.

The 2024 CFO Outlook for Healthcare report, which features survey results of more than 100 healthcare finance professionals, found that more than half (52%) ranked their optimism at 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale. Only 1% of respondents said they were not optimistic about their organization’s financial performance.

Financial improvements in 2023 contributed to the increased optimism. December marked a 10^th consecutive month of positive hospital operating margins after the metric was negative throughout 2022 and the first two months of 2023. Fifty-two percent of survey respondents also said they expect to see their organizations’ operating margins improve over the course of the year. Fourteen percent anticipate operating margins will decrease, while 28% said they would be about the same.

“For the first time since the pandemic, healthcare leaders have cause to be optimistic about their organizations’ futures,” said Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer with Strata Decision Technology. “While operating margins were narrow throughout 2023, gains in revenues and margins in the latter part of the year laid the foundation for further stabilization. To continue that momentum, organizations will need to commit to using data and other tools to help them manage performance and navigate market changes in the year ahead.”

High costs remain a concern for many. Survey respondents cited contract labor and employed labor as their biggest unforeseen costs of 2023. For 2024, reining in costs — including high labor and non-labor costs — is a top priority for 55% of healthcare leaders. Other high priorities cited by survey respondents include managing strategic and performance improvement initiatives (51%) and managing service line financial performance (45%). Cost improvements ranked as the area that offers the most opportunity to improve margin, while strategic growth was No. 2 and quality improvements was No. 3.

Healthcare finance leaders gained renewed confidence in their teams’ ability to adapt to change. Ninety-five percent of respondents said they are either very confident or somewhat confident in their teams’ ability to adjust strategies in response to sudden market and business changes, such as a natural disaster or another pandemic. That was up from 89% in the 2023 survey.

Healthcare leaders are increasingly leveraging data to tackle current and future challenges. The survey results show that 95% of organizations use external performance benchmarks to inform organizational decisions. More than a third (36%) use benchmarks to measure financial and operational performance and 30% measure clinical quality outcomes against peer organizations. Just over a quarter (28%) said they measure labor and productivity against peers.

At the same time, more than nine in 10 healthcare finance professionals surveyed (92%) said their organizations should do more to leverage financial and operational data to inform strategic decisions. Only 8% said they did not need to do more.

Strata’s 2024 CFO Outlook for Healthcare report combines the survey findings with year-end financial performance data from more than 1,300 hospitals and health systems and more than 135,000 physicians, including Axiom™ Comparative Analytics and Strata’s All-Payer Claims and StrataSphere data.

About Strata Decision Technology

Syntellis Social Networks
LinkedIn: Syntellis Performance Solutions
Twitter: @Syntellis

Media contact:

Sally Brown, Inkhouse

[email protected]

Healthcare organizations rank Strata’s Decision Support and Financial Planning & Analytics solutions Best in KLAS

CHICAGO – February 7, 2024 – Strata Decision Technology (Strata), a pioneer and leader in the development of cloud-based financial planning, analytics and performance tools, today announced the company ranked No. 1 in Business Decision Support as part of the 2024 Best in KLAS: Software and Services report from KLAS Research. It marks the 18th consecutive year the company has been ranked No. 1 in the category of Business Decision Support across various solutions.

With this year’s score of 88.6 out of 100, Strata’s StrataJazz^® Decision Support tool has now been named the market leader in Business Decision Support for the past decade. Additionally, Strata’s StrataJazz^® Financial Planning tool received top rankings in Financial Planning & Analysis for the second time in the two years KLAS has offered the category, with a customer satisfaction score of 85.5 out of 100.

“At KLAS, we firmly believe that the voice of healthcare providers and payers is paramount,” said Adam Gale, KLAS Chief Executive Officer. “The Best in KLAS awards are based on extensive feedback and evaluations from healthcare professionals across the nation. Winning a Best in KLAS award, therefore, is not just about recognition; it shows the trust and confidence that healthcare providers place in the winning vendors. It also helps validate each vendor’s commitment to innovation, quality, and customer satisfaction. We are proud to recognize 2024’s Best in KLAS award winners! Their unwavering dedication to improving patient outcomes is wonderfully inspiring.”

The annual Best in KLAS ratings are based on feedback from tens of thousands of interviews with customers conducted throughout the year evaluating their level of satisfaction with over 1,100 healthcare information technology applications and services.

“We are honored to receive Best in KLAS in Business Decision Support, in addition to earning top honors for our Financial Planning & Analysis solutions,” said John Martino, Chief Executive Officer of Strata. “We share this accomplishment with our customers and offer a huge thanks for their ongoing partnership and trust in our solutions. Receiving another year of Best in KLAS distinctions in these areas reflects the work of our entire team as we look to provide our customers with the best solutions and support.”

Strata Decision Technology provides a cloud-based platform for software and service solutions to help organizations better analyze, plan and perform in support of their organizational missions.

As part of Strata’s recent combination with Syntellis Performance Solutions (Syntellis), the company now also provides solutions to higher education, financial institutions and commercial markets. In the healthcare space, Strata continues to invest in and innovate its market-leading products, as well as grow and scale its data and intelligence capabilities.

The company’s 18-year-long streak ranked Best in KLAS reflects over 28 years of work providing its customers with leading planning solutions and services.

Customer Commentary

In determining its rankings, KLAS collects quantitative and qualitative feedback from healthcare providers regarding the applications that they use. The following are a few of the comments from Strata customers, reported by KLAS:

StrataJazz^{^®} Decision Support

Advanced Functionality: “I’m very pleased with the software and our relationship with Strata Decision Technology. The quality of the engineering and the design of the product are why we selected the vendor, and those things have been maintained. We did a full-blown market analysis, and StrataJazz Decision Support was the best product.” Director, October 2023
Usability: “Strata Decision Technology’s tool is super intuitive, and the current design is well liked and received by the folks who use it. The vendor’s current supporting tool is user friendly.” Manager, April 2023
Partnership: “The system has changed a lot since we implemented it. We are looking at doing activity costing. That is an in-depth way to do cost procedures. The vendor stays updated on the most current and accurate ways to handle costs. They roll those methods out to clients and enable clients to enhance their reports and give their board members real-time data that makes sense. I like that about the vendor.” Director, October 2023

StrataJazz^{^®} Financial Planning

Innovation: “Strata Decision Technology’s biggest strengths are their continued development of the tool to increase productivity on my team and trying to build budgets. The biggest improvement I have seen was when we moved to the [OnePlan^®] for budgeting.” VP/Other Executive, July 2023
Agile Planning: “The solution has helped us from a budget preparation standpoint; we have more insight into what is happening in the current year. We are more proactively reaching out to certain areas to see what is happening so that as we go through establishing a target operating budget, we are able to look back at the discussions we had in the year and identify gaps and risks before we are in the next budget cycle. We can see trends and plan for things more quickly than in the past, so we are more reactive.” Director, September 2023
Ease of Use:“When we run reports out of StrataJazz Financial Planning, we know they are correct. I can go into our revenue cycle with any report that I run. I can spot-check and pull any of the encounters.” Director, October 2023

The full 2024 Best in KLAS: Software and Services report is available at www.klasresearch.com.
Click here to learn more about Strata or set up a demonstration of our solutions.

About KLAS

KLAS is a data-driven company on a mission to improve the world’s healthcare by enabling provider and payer voices to be heard and counted. Working with thousands of healthcare professionals, KLAS collects insights on software, services and medical equipment to deliver reports, trending data and statistical overviews. KLAS data is accurate, honest and impartial. The research directly reflects the voice of healthcare professionals and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. To learn more about KLAS, visit KLASresearch.com.

About Strata Decision Technology

Strata Decision Technology provides a cloud-based platform for software and service solutions to help organizations better analyze, plan and perform in support of their missions. With the combination of Syntellis Performance Solutions’ Axiom solutions, more than 2,300 organizations rely on Strata to provide their financial analytics, planning and performance solutions. Strata has been named the market leader for Business Decision Support for 18 consecutive years. By uniting these two industry leaders, Strata continues to deliver market-leading solutions and world-class service, with an increased focus on accelerating innovation. For more information, please go to www.stratadecision.com.

Contacts

Sally Brown, Inkhouse
[email protected]

LIFT23: The Strata Users Virtual Summit unites industry leaders for three days of discussion and sharing of strategies to shape the future of healthcare financial planning

CHICAGO, Oct. 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Strata Decision Technology (Strata), a leader in the development of cloud-based financial planning, cost accounting, performance analytics and data solutions hosted over 2,400 attendees from Strata’s client network of more than 800 healthcare systems at LIFT23: The Strata Users Virtual Summit. As part of the three-day event hosted October 23 – 25, 2023, Strata also honored six leading healthcare organizations with its LEAP Award recognizing outstanding performance in the areas of finance and strategy.

The LIFT23 event highlights use cases and best practices for addressing the challenges facing healthcare provider organizations today, offering leadership panels, product demonstrations and industry thought leadership. This year’s event offered new tools and resources to tackle today’s industry challenges, including new data & intelligence solutions, lessons and insights from LEAP Award winners and peer-led CPE-accredited panels and sessions.

Tackling Today’s Toughest Challenges in Healthcare

As the nation’s hospitals and health systems continue to feel the financial impact of shifting demand, rising labor costs and shrinking margins, the three-day virtual event brings together finance leaders from across the country to empower one another with actionable ideas for today and share how they prepare for tomorrow.

“Our healthcare clients are facing a number of challenges, including workforce shortages, new competition, shifts in care settings and other margin pressures,” said John Martino, Strata’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are excited to offer this three-day event as an opportunity for our growing network of over 800 healthcare organizations to come together and discuss the strategies they’re using to address these challenges. Following our planned business combination with Syntellis Performance Solutions, Strata’s tools and services will unlock new ways for our clients to identify and leverage key insights to support their organization moving forward.”

New Data & Intelligence Track Equips Leaders with Tools for Intelligent Planning & Actionable Analysis

This year’s LIFT23 attendees had access to an all-new data and intelligence solutions track. This track focused on new capabilities derived from powerful data sets and analytics solutions, including Axiom™ Comparative Analytics, Axiom™ Market Opportunity Visualization and Axiom™ Market Opportunity Analysis.

Opening the data and intelligence track was Strata’s Chief Data and Intelligence Officer, Steve Wasson, who presented key findings from the special-edition Strata and Syntellis Performance Trends report released today. This extended report combines financial, operational, and claims data from hospitals and physician practices across the country. This special edition highlights continued increase in demand for outpatient care, high yet stable labor costs as contract labor utilization declines, and some, albeit limited uplift in operating margins as compared to 2022.

2023 LEAP Award Winners Announced at LIFT23

During the event, six leading healthcare organizations were recognized with Strata’s 2023 LEAP (Lead, Excel, Achieve and Progress) Award in recognition of outstanding financial and strategic performance for the benefit of the organization and the communities it serves.

The 2023 LEAP Award winners are:

Integrated Delivery Networks: Catholic Health (Rockville Centre, NY)
Community Hospitals: Mary Washington Healthcare (Fredericksburg, VA)
Academic Medical Centers: UC Irvine Health (Irvine, CA)

Additionally, St. Luke’s University Health Network (Bethlehem, PA), Intermountain Health (Salt Lake City, UT) and Sentara Health (Norfolk, VA) were recognized as semi-finalists for demonstrated excellence in decision support, planning and performance, respectively.

Peer-led & CPE-Accredited Thought Leadership Sessions at LIFT23

A forum for healthcare leaders to share their experience and successful strategies related to financial planning, analytics and performance, the LIFT23 agenda included nearly 40 CPE-accredited sessions expertly led by almost 30 members of Strata’s client network. Charles Duhigg, award-winning New York Times reporter and bestselling author of The Power of Habit, delivered the Guest Keynote. Key sessions showcasing peer-tested best practices included:

Hear From the Front Lines: Labor Strategies from Chief Nursing Officers – Panel Discussion with Texas Health Frisco, Nebraska Medical Center and Catholic Health Mercy Hospital
Forecasting Best Practices: The Top Strategies from Across Our Network – Presented by Children’s Health (Dallas, TX) and Sentara Health
Healthcare Trends & Innovation Strategies – Panel Discussion with Mass General Brigham and Intermountain Health
Maintaining Momentum with Initiative Tracking – Presented by Northwestern Medicine, Essentia Health and Southern Illinois Healthcare

About Strata Decision Technology

Strata Decision Technology provides a cloud-based platform for software and service solutions to help healthcare providers better analyze, plan, and perform in support of caring for their community and reducing the cost of care. With the combination of Syntellis Performance Solutions’ Axiom solutions, approximately 800 healthcare organizations rely on Strata to provide their financial analytics, planning and performance solutions. Strata has been named the market leader for Business Decision Support for 17 consecutive years, and Syntellis’ Axiom solutions have maintained HFMA Peer Review designation for nearly a decade along with No. 1 rankings from Black Book Research for multiple years. By uniting these two industry leaders, Strata continues to deliver market-leading solutions and world-class service, with an increased focus on accelerating innovation. For more information, please go to www.stratadecision.com.