BY Trip Hillman, Partner, Cybersecurity Consulting Services, and Shelby Mathers, Director, Cybersecurity Consulting Services, Weaver   The health care industry is no stranger to cyberattacks. From ransomware shutting down emergency rooms to data breaches exposing millions of patient records, health care organizations have long been prime targets for cybercriminals. As the threat landscape evolves, so too must health care industry leaders think about cybersecurity, not just as a technical issue but also as a strategic...

BY Adam Portacci, Weaver Compensation arrangements for pathology services provided to hospital patients are uniquely driven by a complex interplay of compliance requirements and market conditions. Determining the fair market value (FMV) for these arrangements requires specialized analyses in the regulatory context. In general, to meet certain exceptions under the physician self-referral laws (commonly referred to as Stark) from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and certain safe harbors under the Anti-Kickback Statute...

BY Darron J. Gill, Partner, Healthcare Advisory, & Britni Barsness, Director, Financial Due Diligence, KPMG The question at the forefront of dealmakers’ minds: How will the macroeconomic environment, public policy, and innovation impact the healthcare and life sciences market in 2025? To understand what might happen in 2025, let’s first revisit how the HCLS deal market performed in 2024. KPMG’s annual investment outlook for Healthcare and Life Sciences (HCLS) (the Outlook), published each year in...

BY Hunter Sundbeck, Manager, Consulting Services, Weaver   Perspectives on the most critical aspects of the health care supply chain vary significantly depending on one’s role within the health care ecosystem. A hospital nurse may prioritize the secure transportation of medicinal products, while a hospital administrator might consider daily operational equipment more vital. Meanwhile, a regional clinic may continue using a seven-year-old blood pressure monitor, inadvertently introducing cyber vulnerabilities that could render the device inoperable...

BY Shannon Kirkpatrick and Brittany Elliser, Managing Directors, KPMG LLP   When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Exempt & Government Entities Division released its fiscal year 2025 Program Letter on October 29, 2024, examinations of tax-exempt hospitals were listed as one of the key compliance enforcement priorities. This continues an effort the IRS first revealed in March 2024, when it announced a compliance strategy focused on whether tax-exempt hospitals are meeting the statutory obligations...

BY Catherine Lightfoot, CPA, CHBC, Director of Healthcare at EEPB   Does this sound like you? While real estate housing markets have cooled off in some areas, many homeowners have values on their principal residences that are worth far more than what they originally cost. When selling these homes, the gains could be well in excess of the principal residence gain exclusion allowed by the IRS ($250,000 for single filers, or $500,000 for joint filers)....

BY Tina Wheeler, Partner, Health Care Leader, Bill Laughlin, Principal, Life Sciences and Health Care, Temano Shurland, Health Care Finance, Jason Barnes, Partner, Risk & Financial Advisory, Maulesh Shukla, Executive Manager, Madhushree Wagh, Senior Research Analyst, Deloitte   The health care industry has struggled with profitability for the past decade, and these challenges have intensified since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has hindered organizations’ efforts to achieve their mission of delivering innovative, high-quality,...

BY Catherine Lightfoot, EEPB I recently heard a presentation by Don Harkey of People Centric Consulting Group at the 2024 Texas Orthopedic Administrators Society conference (a.k.a. T-Bones). The topic, “How the Millennials will Save Healthcare,” touched upon all the generations in the modern workforce. The premise of the discussion was to embrace the generational differences and how they make a positive contribution, rather than criticizing how they differ. At the same conference, a few administrators...

BY Aloha McBride, Global Health Leader, & Heather E. Meade, Principal, Washington Council, Ernst & Young   As the challenges of health care affordability, staffing and access continue across the US, the rise of technology presents a significant opportunity to unlock more responsive care that better addresses patients’ health and social needs while alleviating provider burden and reducing costs.   The question is, will US policymakers take action to capture this potential?   Our work...

BY Catherine Lightfoot, CPA, CHBC, Director of Healthcare at EEPB I recently attended Houston’s 2024 Healthcare Leadership Quorum (HCLQ), a platform for industry-leading experts and professionals to deliberate on the most relevant and pressing issues in healthcare. This year’s discussions centered around promoting awareness and motivating change in the areas of human capital & people strategy, artificial intelligence, and mental health.  Enlightening sessions provided deep insights into not only the challenges but also the innovative...