How to Evaluate the True Cost of Hospital-Based Services
June 9, 2025
Are You Paying Too Much for Hospital-Based Services?
Performance Transformation
The Opportunity: Rethinking Subsidy Value in a Shifting Landscape
Hospitals face mounting pressure to deliver quality care while managing rising costs and limited resources. For many, hospital-based service arrangements—covering emergency medicine, anesthesiology, hospitalists, and more—have become a financial strain. The question is: Are you still getting the right value for what you’re paying?
What’s Driving Subsidy Increases
Provider shortages, increased compensation demands, high Medicare/Medicaid payer mix, and the shift to outpatient care all contribute to the growing financial support hospitals offer. These subsidies are often necessary—but they must also be strategically aligned with performance.
Why It’s Time to Reassess
Even if your current group performs well, a structured review can:
- Evaluate the appropriateness of the current service delivery model
- Benchmark costs and services against the market
- Identify opportunities to rebalance staffing, coverage, or scope
- Strengthen your negotiating position for renewal
- Enhance service accountability and documentation of value
Using a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) process brings clarity to what you're paying for and ensures that your partners meet evolving expectations around quality, coverage, and efficiency.
Real-World Considerations
Hospitals we work with often initiate an RFP in response to leadership turnover, rising subsidies, or lack of service alignment. But some of the most successful organizations do so proactively—before a renewal—to validate value and avoid last-minute compromises.
How We Help
At Coker, we guide healthcare leaders through every step of the evaluation process—from benchmarking provider performance to ensuring subsidy structures are consistent with fair market value and commercial reasonableness standards. Whether you remain with your current provider or explore alternatives, we help align your service arrangements with both your strategic goals and compliance obligations.
Let’s Reevaluate Together
Subsidy arrangements play a critical role in balancing quality care and financial sustainability. If you’re considering a renewal or simply want to ensure your current service partners are still the right fit, we’re here to help you think it through.
We’re always ready to talk strategy—at your pace.
