Over the past five months, I’ve reflected on the phrase “the perfect storm,” defined as a particularly bad state of affairs. I would say the current crisis—the combination of the public health crisis, financial crisis, and political crisis—meets that criteria. And as we look ahead at the organizational competencies that are stressed during any time of crisis, and…

Jack Welch once said, “If I had to run a company on three measures, those measures would be customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and cash flow.” Unfortunately, most non-profits—and even for-profits—in the health and human service sector fall short on the third measure, which sounds the death knell in a crisis.
My simple mantra for…

LifeSkills Inc., a behavioral health provider organization based in Bowling Green, Kentucky, offers mental health, addictions, crisis, and intellectual and developmental disability services. LifeSkills was founded in 1966 and provides care to an 18-county territory comprising metropolitan and rural areas. It is a private, non-profit corporation that contracts with the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health,…

A mid-sized specialty health care provider organization offering residential and day services for consumers with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) was in a severe financial crisis. Their fiscal position was weakening by the day and cash flow was a big problem. COVID-19 exacerbated the situation as service utilization and revenue declined, costs of delivering residential…

I wrote this article back in 2016, right after the last Presidential election. Now, as we near another election, it feels like much has changed, yet nothing has changed. But the themes of prioritizing cash management, data-driven decision making, and scenario-based planning take on an even greater importance in a health care landscape torn apart…

In early 2019, our team discussed the changes in revenue cycle management needed for value-based reimbursement. As we explore cash management strategies in the August 2020 issue of The OPEN MINDS Management Newsletter, I thought these strategies would be relevant to share again with our readers, as streamlining billing and collections is a critical aspect…