Becker's ASC Review

32 HEALTHCARE NEWS 32 Michael Dowling: The most pressing question to start the year By Michael J. Dowling, President & CEO, Northwell Health T he new year is always an ideal time for healthcare leaders to reflect on the state of our industry and their own organizations, as well as the challenges and opportunities ahead. As the CEO of a large health system, I always like to reflect on one basic question at the end of each year: Are we staying true to our mission? Certainly, maintaining an organization's financial health must always be a priority but we should also never lose sight of our core purpose. In a business like ours that has confronted and endured a global pandemic and immense financial struggles over the past several years, I recognize it's increasingly difficult to maintain our focus on mission while trying to find ways to pay for rising labor and supply costs, infrastructure improvements needed to remain competitive and other pressures on our day-to-day operations. Aer all, the investments we need to make to promote community wellness, mental health, environmental sustainability and health equity receive little or no reimbursement, negatively impacting our financial bottom lines. During an era of unprecedented expansion of Medicaid and Medicare, we get less and less relief from commercial insurers, whose denial and delay tactics for reimbursing medical claims continue to erode the stability of many health systems and hospitals, especially those caring for low-income communities. Despite those enormous pressures, it's imperative that we continue to support underserved communities, military veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress, and intervention programs that help deter gun violence and addiction. e list of other worthy investments goes on and on: charity care to uninsured or underinsured patients who can't pay their medical bills, funding for emergency services that play such a critical role during public health emergencies, nutritional services for families struggling to put food on the table, programs that combat human trafficking and support women's health, the LGBTQIA+ community and global health initiatives that aid Ukraine, the Middle East and other countries torn apart by war, famine and natural disasters. We must also recognize the key role of healthcare providers as educators. School-based mental health programs are saving lives by identifying children exhibiting suicidal behaviors, anger management issues and other troublesome behaviors. School outreach efforts have the added benefit of helping health systems and hospitals address their own labor shortages by introducing young people to career paths that will help shape the future healthcare workforce. Without a doubt, the "to-do" list of community health initiatives that support our mission is daunting. We can't do it all alone, but as the largest employers in cities and towns across America, health systems and hospitals can serve as a catalyst to get all sectors of our society — government, businesses, schools, law enforcement, churches, social service groups and other community-based organizations — to recognize that "health" goes far beyond the delivery of medical care. e health of individuals, families and communities hinges on the prevalence of good-paying jobs, decent and affordable housing, quality education, access to healthy foods, medical care, transportation, clean air and water, low prevalence of crime and illicit drugs, and numerous other variables that typically depend on the zip codes where we live. ose so-called social determinants of health are the driving factors that enable communities and the people who live there to either prosper or struggle, resulting in disparities that are the underlying CFOs of private equity-backed companies feel the heat By Andrew Cass A survey revealed the vast majority of CFOs working for private-equity portfolio companies are worried about their job security, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 27. The report cited a recent Accordion survey of 200 finance chiefs and private-equity sponsors that found that 91% of CFOs worry about their jobs following a private equity investment in their employer. That's up from 87% in 2021 and 66% in 2019. More private equity firms are looking for CFOs that can identify and implement strategic initiatives to drive growth in addition to performing more traditional reporting and finance tasks, according to the report. But firms and CFOs don't always see eye-to-eye on where to focus their time and energy to meet these goals. Accordion's survey found that only 24% of CFOs cited acquisitions as a key focus, compared with 43% of private equity executives. Forty- five percent of CFOs cited cost reductions as a key focus, compared with 28% of private equity executives. Regular communication between portfolio company CFOs and private equity executives is more important than ever to align business goals, said Henry Neely, CFO of Specialty1, a network of dental surgery practices backed by private markets firm VSS. Mr. Neely told the Journal that communication, especially early on, needs to be happening every couple of weeks — just a 30-minute or hour-long phone call is enough to form a successful relationship, he said. Aaron Miller, a partner at private equity firm Apollo Global Management, added that the biggest mistake CFOs can make is sharing bad news late or not at all. n

• Cover