WASHOUGAL, Wash., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A new company, Millwood Associates, is poised to work with not-for-profit healthcare organizations, providing solutions that will empower them to continue to make a difference in their communities.
Millwood Associates leadership, Ron Benfield, FACHE, President and CEO and Craig Wilcox, MHA, Vice President, bring extensive knowledge gained through diverse experience in healthcare. As a hospital CFO and COO, Benfield was instrumental in leading five major financial turnarounds, ensuring ongoing sustainability of their mission while Wilcox brings broad expertise in numerous facets of healthcare including finance, marketing, strategic planning, service line management, reimbursement and business development.
"Many hospitals that are struggling financially follow the traditional playbook—with short-term fixes that include implementing employee cutbacks and reducing supply chain expense," Benfield says. What sets Millwood Associates apart is the determination of Benfield and Wilcox to honor the mission of improving the health of the communities served, avoiding destructive layoffs while working with hospital leadership to create margin fixes that last. Often hospitals are being underpaid by significant amounts and are unaware of the impact resulting from broken revenue cycle processes.
"When broken processes which erode margins within a hospital are fixed, positive financial impact happens relatively quickly with results that are long-lasting," says Benfield. The company has developed three primary solutions, each of which have been successfully implemented and replicated in hospitals, surviving in an ever-changing healthcare environment.
Benfield used these approaches while CFO at Adventist Healthcare Shady Grove in Rockville, Maryland, working with Dennis Hansen, former president of Adventist Healthcare, Shady Grove. "Sustainable healthcare turnarounds are built on the convergence of many key leadership, relational and technical dynamics. Identifying and diligently pursing a mix of both large and small opportunities as a team, and informed with powerful insights in the area of revenue realization, enabled Adventist Healthcare Shady Grove to experience a financial improvement from a $6 million loss to a $21 million gain in three years," according to Hansen.
"Historical rate increases from Medicare and commercial payors have declined," Benfield says, "while expenses like labor, drugs, supplies and physician services continue to grow. This has squeezed margins and threatens the ability to sustain mission for many organizations."
"While we believe in improving productivity by reducing waste we greatly dislike the layoffs that are often a part of our industry," says Wilcox. "We can help hospitals get fairly paid for the services they provide, removing the pressure and damage of harmful cost cuts."
"In our work with clients, Millwood helps ensure they are paid appropriately for the services delivered, diagnoses and repairs margin-eroding problems, and helps create a vibrant new 'owner' mindset. These changes can typically add at least two to three margin points for our clients," says Benfield.
SOURCE Millwood Associates
Share this article