Scared of the Regulatory Storm

I was at an educational event last week and one of the presenters spoke about the major regulatory changes that are going to be coming to hospitals in the near future. The major changes that are coming are:

RAC audits
IRS form 990
HIPPA

After the presentation (which was very good I might add), the general emotion of the CFO's around my table was fear. I guess it was fear about how difficult their job was going to be, or maybe fear about the financial performance of their institution.

Many of these regulatory changes are meant to improve your hospital. Use the opportunity of the RAC audits to review your charging practices. While the RAC auditors will be looking for overpayments, there are just as likely to be procedures you didn't charge for. Form 990 changes give you an opportunity to review how you serve your community. How can you improve the hospital's perception in the community?

There's nothing to fear but fear itself. If you let the fear of these changes take over, you could miss the opportunity to improve the operations of your hospital.