Long-term care facilities and hospitals in today’s health care environment are finding it increasingly difficult to survive on their own as a result of rising costs from Medicare fraud and abuse, the necessary need to control costs under the Medicare prospective payment system (PPS), the cost of corporate compliance, and the losses from managed care organizations.  The smaller health care facilities are more at risk than the larger more established facilities.  Smaller facilities typically have fewer resources in terms of capital, collateral to obtain financing, and professional staff with a technical knowledge in the areas of marketing, law, fund development, and capital replacement.  And consequently health care facilities are doing what they need to do to survive such as merging, forming strategic alliances, forming Group Purchase Organizations, buying, selling, affiliating, creating Integrated delivery Systems (IDS) for risk-sharing, and finding other ways to control costs and increase reimbursement.
By Blair E. Thomas

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