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This past year in higher education has been fraught with challenges, both new and chronic. A focus on objective assessment, planning, and preparation will be vitally necessary to survive the ever-changing weather of higher education.

The concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence explored by Arthur Brooks in his new book, “From Strength to Strength,” offer a new way for health system leaders to look at their executive team and find the proper balance between different types of intelligence.

How can board members play a helpful role in rating agency meetings if they are invited to attend? Here are three ways in which board members can add value to the rating presentation.

Responses to Kaufman Hall’s 2023 “State of Healthcare Performance Improvement” report indicate ongoing concern regarding covenant challenges in 2024. Organizations need to understand the causes of covenant misses and near misses and build a durable financial plan for the future.

Some institutions have addressed the tuition pricing problem by instituting across-the-board tuition resets. A better approach is one that combines evaluation of the competitive landscape with a careful analysis of the institution’s current academic product mix.

Today, the commercial group health insurance market is hollowing out, primarily driven by affordability pressures that have been building for decades.

Before you can establish the organizational thought platform that best guides your hospital forward, you will need a leadership team that is committed to creating a “listening and learning” healthcare company.

Higher education is facing a crisis of confidence in the value of a college degree, with risk implications for enrollments, tuition pricing, and capital spending. Avoiding these risks begins with finding and quantifying the appropriate “corridor of control” for your institution.

Balance sheet strength has buffered consumers and businesses from some of the restrictive shock of higher rates. With a relatively brittle revenue model in healthcare, the focus becomes whether, when, and how to restructure operations as balance sheets are spent down.

The number of not-for-profit hospital rating downgrades has escalated in 2023, suggesting that benefit of the doubt is running out. Hospitals will need to go the extra mile when preparing material for their rating agency meetings.

Medicare Advantage has been a tremendous growth story in recent years. Today, however, new risks are emerging from both providers and regulators that could stall and perhaps even reverse the growth strides health plans have made in the MA market.

Hospital leadership faces an undeniably hard challenge: regaining financial stability, finding a relevant post-Covid competitive vision, and energizing teams with a renewed sense of purpose. But fighting back is the hospital job of the moment.