The Rise of Hospital Government Relations 2-26-15
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•917 views
Unprecedented transformation is reshaping our nation's healthcare delivery system. In this post- ACA environment, providers are increasingly dependent on the government as a payor. At the same time, regulators and governing bodies at the local, state and federal level determine the ever-changing rules and regulations through which providers operate. Through all of this, one thing is clear: having a well-established government relations program has never been more important to achieving a health care organization’s strategic business goals. Given the increasing role government relations is playing in a health system’s success, leaders across the country are rethinking how they invest in, structure and staff their programs. General counsels at some health systems are very involved in these efforts, others less so. Join us to learn why you and your organization should be assessing your approach to and management of government relations. David Jarrard and Magi Curtis will share industry insights and best practices as well as hard data from a nation-wide benchmark project they recently published that looks at how hospitals and health systems are approaching government relations.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (20)
Similar to The Rise of Hospital Government Relations 2-26-15
Similar to The Rise of Hospital Government Relations 2-26-15 (20)
More from Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Inc.
More from Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Inc. (10)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
The Rise of Hospital Government Relations 2-26-15
- 1. Strategic Healthcare PublicAffairs The Rise of Hospital Government Relations March 1, 2015
- 2. Industry Challenges: Changing Daily
- 3. Industry Challenges = GR Challenges
- 4. Industry Challenges = GR Challenges
- 5. Now Imagine Being General Counsel at This Hospital
- 6. Hospital At-a-Glance • Region’s largest healthcare provider – $3 billion system with multiple hospitals, outpatient care centers and clinics – One of the largest employers in the region – Provides more charity care and community programs than any other provider in the region • Committed to and known for delivering high-quality, affordable care
- 7. Hospital-At-a-Glance: A Sophisticated System • Dynamic CEO • Embraces industry changes and proactively invests in innovative ways to deliver care – Established networks with local providers – Partnership with CVS to bring care to their patients where they live and shop – Fully implemented EHR system throughout the health system • The list goes on…
- 8. Hospital Realities • Repeatedly getting hit by reimbursement cuts (that others in the region are staving off) • Losing significant managed care contracts • Unable to influence critical legislative and regulatory issues • Unsuccessful in Certificate of Need attempts (their own and opposing others’) • No significant external champions willing to speak up on their behalf • Competitor is seen as the savior in the community
- 9. Meet Bob
- 10. Unsophisticated GR Program for Sophisticated System • The system has crippled its GR program for years – Doesn’t have a leader dedicated to GR – Doesn’t invest in its GR team, its efforts or its reputation – Overall leadership isn’t engaged in GR – Doesn’t tie GR goals to organization’s strategic goals – No proactive relationship cultivation with elected officials, regulators, their staffs or key opinion leaders in the community • GR and Communications aren’t working together • No focused way they talk about the organization or its goals and accomplishments
- 11. Endangered Species • Thankfully, Bob is an endangered species • Hospitals and health systems across the country are – smartly – rethinking how they invest in, staff and structure their GR departments • Up until last year, however, there were no tools to evaluate one’s program to see how it stacked up against its peers • So, we embarked on a nationwide survey to compile data from hospital and health system GR leaders about their departments
- 12. The Rise of Hospital Government Relations Benchmark Data from Hospitals and Health Systems Across the Nation
- 13. Structure
- 14. Structure
- 15. Structure
- 16. Structure
- 17. Structure
- 18. Budget
- 19. Lobbying
- 20. Lobbying
- 21. Lobbying
- 22. Determining Goals & Measuring Success
- 23. Determining Goals & Measuring Success
- 24. Worth Noting…
- 25. Insights • GR efforts have never played a more critical role in the success of a hospital or health system than they do today • GR leaders must figure out how to measure ROI for their departments • Hospital and health system leadership must recognize the importance of GR, invest in it wisely and welcome the team to the leadership table • The key to success will be having an established program before your organization needs anything
- 26. Using What We Know…
- 27. What Should Hospital X Do? • Build a GR infrastructure that positions the organization for success – Establish a GR expert dedicated exclusively to GR; this leader should report directly to the CEO – Establish clear roles for each team member – Retain appropriate lobbyists – Engage the board, leadership and other advocates
- 28. What Should Hospital X Do? • Coordinate closely between GR, communications and other key internal departments • Create a message platform that clearly differentiates the organization from competitors and establishes it as the vital community resource it is • Develop a focused and sustained external outreach plan – Leverage existing relationships and forge new ones • Cultivate a base of advocates willing to speak on its behalf
- 29. Success Would Look Like • Influencing legislative or regulatory decisions • Inclusion in state-based exchange plans and demonstration projects • Achieving goals in payment reform efforts – Staving off cuts / fighting for increases – Move to value based care • Completing growth strategies – Mergers, acquisitions, JVs, etc. – CINs,ACOs • Successfully win or opposeCertificate of Need applications • Wining significant managed care contracts • Repairing the organization’s reputation
- 30. Using What You Now Know
- 31. 5 Questions to Ask Upon Your Return 1. Are we achieving our strategic goals? – See “What SuccessWould Look Like” to get your mind turning 2. Does our GR leader have a seat at our senior leadership table? 3. Are we investing enough resources into our GR efforts? 4. Do we know how our GR efforts stack up against those of our peers and competitors? 5. How will we know if our GR efforts are successful?
- 32. Subscribe to Our Thinking The good-natured authority for news, commentary, trends and actionable tips – with a dash of rumor – about Nashville’s biggest industry: healthcare. A leadership blog written for senior-level healthcare executives, High Stakes offers insights and counsel on the communications challenges of today’s transformative hospital environment. A marketing blog that harnesses more than 75 years of collective in-house hospital expertise, Jack of AllTrades helps marketing and communications executives master the new realities of healthcare communications.
Editor's Notes
- Big Excellent quality Responsible charity care Proactively preparing for the future
- A sophisticated system Led by sophisticated leaders Using sophisticated systems Continually improving using best practices from like-minded, like-sized systems from across the country
- But… Despite quality, care and sophistication… Losing this Losing that Losing, losing, losing
- Meet Bob Former lobbyist, community activist
- An unsophisticated GR program for a sophisticated system They’re not doing this Not doing that It’s like an eight-track tape in an iPod world
- Bob is an engangered species – and good riddance to him. To be clear: many systems have stellar strategic GR programs (many of them are probably represented here) But if you’re building a new GR system or elevating your GR program – as many are – where’s the blueprint? Where are the metrics? What are savvy, comparable systems doing? When we looked for these tools, there were none. Until now.
- We interviewed 38 GR leaders Big systems, medium systems and hospitals, urban and rural, AMCs, freestanding children’s hospitals and for-profit hospital companies We wanted to know: How do you structure GR How does your organization invest in GR How are you using lobbying and trade association resources How are you measuring your success Let’s talk about some of our findings…
- Gov’t leaders are seasoned professionals. Nearly 90 percent of all respondents reported working in the industry for 8-15 years and over 60 percent for over 15 years. What this says to us is that the individuals leading government relations efforts at our nation’s hospitals and health systems are true experts in their field.
- Less than a quarter of all GR leaders report directly to their CEO – a majority of them are one direct report away from the CEO. While this number was shockingly low to us, what we can tell you (both from the survey respondents and from our experiences) is that high-performing organizations achieving the success on their strategic goals position their GR leaders at the executive table and engage them in the overall business strategy development for the organization.
- When it comes to how much time the GR lead is dedicating to GR activities, what we can tell you is that for the most part, the larger the hospital or health system, the more time the lead dedicates exclusively to GR activities.
- Half of the organizations have stand-alone GR departments – other areas that are common for GR to fall under include legal and public or external affairs. I can tell you, based on first-hand experience, having GR coupled with Communications, PR and Community Relations can create a very powerful marriage for delivering consistent, strategic messages to external audiences.
- More than havlf of all participating organizations reported having GR departments with 3 or fewer individuals. The desire for increased FTEs was a reoccurring sentiment. Regardless of number of staff, it’s important that all team members have clearly defined roles.
- Responses varied, but generally speaking the larger overall department budgets appear in the larger hospitals and health systems. Which makes sense, as these systems tend to have more resources and are often juggling dynamic growth strategies.
- For all of the same reasons that an org invests in an internal GR program, they also often utilize contract lobbyists. In fact, only 7 of our nearly 40 respondents don’t utilize contract lobbyists on any level (and 2 of the 7 are AMCs and are restricted from doing so). Contract lobbyists are simply another arm of an effective GR strategy and most successful business tap into these resources – regardless of industry.
- Budgets for contract lobbyists ranged from less than $100K to well over $1 M. As you might guess, the larger budgets come from the larger hospitals and systems (with all of the same caveats that went with the # of contract lobbyists engaged).
- As a former hospital trade association person myself, I can tell you first-hand that many hospitals – wisely – participate in trade association advocacy efforts (and most at both the federal and state levels). This is just smart – 20 or 50 or 2,000+ hospitals are stronger and have more influence than one. Insights on how small and larger hospitals use trade associations.
- You’ll see here that about half of respondents reported regular engagement with the board. As the role of GR rises in a hospital or health system’s overall business success, the board will need to be engaged and see legislative advocacy as one of their primary service responsibilities. Tell story if time.
- While most participants report setting annual goals and having to demonstrate some measure of ROI, the ways in which ROI is measured varies widely – very widely – like the difference between a grid that tracks all outreach efforts, money won or saved for the system, etc. to “do we have access when we need it” This is the area that GR professionals are going to need to step-up their game. If an organization is going to make a more significant investment in the area, GR leaders are going to need to prove the team’s worth.
- While we’ve just covered the highlights of the benchmark report, I want to leave you with one last data point…over half of survey respondents reported receiving between 50-74% of their organization’s revenues from government sources. If nothing else – this fact alone is a compelling reason – if not a mandate – for a robust GR program.