Fixing Challenges in Patient Access to Care

Eight hundred thousand nurses plan to leave healthcare by 2027. One hundred seventeen thousand doctors left the workforce in 2021. The CHQPR estimates more than 600 rural hospitals are at risk of closing. One in five hospitals in California are at risk of closing. These meaningful signals remain after one filters out the noise and distractions. Patient access to care is under threat at every turn in this country. How can the industry expect to improve the health equity landscape when staffing and hospital shortages run the risk of leaving fewer patient access options?

What can and should the industry do about these healthcare challenges?

For context, insights, and some answers to these issues and concerns in the healthcare industry, I Don’t Care’s Kevin Stevenson reached out to one of the foremost healthcare industry experts, Nathan Kaufman, the Managing Director of Kaufman Strategic Advisors and Matterhorn Strategic Advisors, is a take-no-prisoner, no-nonsense, straight shooter when discussing barriers to patient care.

“What kind of healthcare system do we have when the people that save lives, that heal people, that cure people from diseases are losing money, and the people who process their claims are making record profits?” Kaufman said. “That’s the healthcare system that we have.”

Stevenson and Kaufman discuss the following:

• How private payers are putting rural hospitals out of business
• The need for private payer dollars to provide infrastructure support for rural healthcare systems
• Solutions to the challenges facing rural hospitals and other healthcare networks

“Few health systems have the competency to run home-health agencies,” Kaufman said. “And they lose money. We have a client. They came to us and said, ‘We’re losing money in home health.’ So, what we did was an auction. And we brought all the for-profit home health agencies that are making money, and we sold 51% of the home health agency to people who know how to run home health agencies.”

About Nathan

Nathan Kaufman aims to improve healthcare delivery by enhancing providers’ strategic and financial performance. He brings over 40 years of experience as a strategist, executive, and negotiator to his role as managing director of Kaufman Strategic Advisors and Matterhorn Strategic Advisors. Kaufman is considered one of the nation’s healthcare industry experts. He received his BA in Psychology from Emory University and his MS in health systems from the Georgia Institute of Technology.