Policymakers lack the nuanced financial information on health systems they need to make consequential policy decisions, researchers argue in a recent report in the Journal of Healthcare Finance, Healthcare Dive reports.
The financial information they do have is incomplete or inaccurate, according to the researchers from Harvard and the Urban Institute. Instead, policymakers need to use audited financial statements, the “gold standard” of financial information for organizations, researchers said.
The paper points to the uneven distribution of federal coronavirus relief funds as a consequence of not having nuanced financial information on health systems readily available. The relief funds were meant to prop up hospitals most in need, but much of the relief was sent to systems sitting on large cash reserves that were better suited to weather an event of this type. Read more.
