Hospitals have borrowed heavily from industrial settings in their quest to eliminate error in the delivery of care. Our presenters will review an emerging set of principles applied by “high reliability organizations” (HRO) in complex, high-risk sectors such as nuclear power, aviation, space flight, and the military. These same principles are now being applied to healthcare settings ranging from intensive care to the dentist”s chair.

This session features lessons learned from two innovative entrepreneurs in healthcare. Both possess a unique focus on patient-centered, coordinated care that has led to dramatic improvements in clinical efficiency, total cost and quality measurements. Each will present a brief case study on their company’s mission, experience and vision for the future.

An article in The Economist magazine last year predicted a significant contraction for private equity. With less debt for leverage, and a diminishing record for overall returns, it predicted much less investor interest into new private equity funds, leading to a coming consolidation of private equity firms. Will this prediction come to fruition in the healthcare services investing sector? Why or why not, and what might it mean for healthcare providers looking for private equity investments.

As a CEO or COO, do you ever feel like you need to switch gears to comprehend the world of finance? This session will help us all get up to speed so the gear-switching is smoother. In a rapid-learning format, we’ll cover: 1) debt versus equity, 2) different types of loans, 3) pros and cons of different lender types, 4) understanding cap rates and IRRs; and 5) top ten tips on effective financial management, from debt ratios to managing lender relationships.

The Cheshire Medical Center in New Hampshire has embarked on a bold and radical mission to develop the healthiest community in the U.S. This case study will describe Cheshire’s journey to becoming an ACO — an ambitious effort that required moving beyond the four walls of the hospital into primary care, community outreach, and wellness.

The prospect of creating an IT strategy for the future can be daunting. Our panel of innovative healthcare providers will offer their success stories in technology solutions and provide you with a thought-provoking conceptual structure which marries your business strategy with your technology strategy in a way that is both future-looking and efficient.

Managed care payers in the future will play a critical role in the integration of healthcare service providers. This trend is anticipated to expand with the further development of accountability-based payment systems and integrated delivery models. This panel of managed care executives will discuss why the new paradigm after healthcare reform makes it more compelling to own providers, as well as the challenges and risks it creates.

Providers take note: healthcare reform has increased both the scope and breadth of government audit activities with the expansion of the Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) program into Medicare Parts C and D and Medicaid. Our panel of experts will discuss the role of the RACs and the interplay between the RAC audits, the healthcare entities who may be subjected to them, and the overall fraud and abuse issues.

As the capital markets regain their strength, we are seeing a return to an M&A landscape in healthcare where consolidation and strategic acquisitions are currently steering the capital. This panel of leading financiers will give their best shot at predicting what we’ll see in 2012 with regard to: M&A activity, deal prices, interest rates, trends in lending, and creative financing.

Physician Groups are at the forefront of building ACOs. The three distinct models we see emerging are: the Independent Physician (IPA) model, the Managed Medical Center model, and the Integrated Delivery System model. Within each model, there are questions about payment methodology, sharing patient data, sharing responsibility for value of care, and creating greater efficiencies. Learn what leading large physician groups are doing to make the patient centered medical home and ACOs a reality.

Imagine running your healthcare facility with full transparency. What happens when your costs, outcomes, mistakes, and innovations are shared and openly available? Could you operate in that environment now? If not, then this session will illuminate some opportunities for you and show how new data sharing models combined with social networks of rational, informed consumers are radically transforming the system.

Healthcare reform has created an onerous condition for home health providers by requiring face-to-face condition verification from physicians. A promising new technology has emerged which may satisfy the regulations for less cost and inconvenience. Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) technology is intended to verify that patients are receiving authorized healthcare services. Efforts are currently underway to assist in the development of uniform EVV implementation standards. Hear the very latest on EVV from this panel.

Here’s the logic: Our federal fiscal crisis is large and getting worse. The only long term solution will come from entitlement cuts. Any company which depends heavily on government funding is destined to have decreasing margins, and thus, this is a time to be selling healthcare companies, not buying them. Our panel will discuss the legitimacy of this macro view, its ramifications, and silver linings. Interesting insights for private equity firms, lenders and providers interested in M&A.

The “separating opco from propco” trend we talked about last year has deepened — with more recent provider/REIT deals being consummated — Manor Care/HCP, Ventas/NHP, Genesis/HC REIT. Is it a good time for all large or mid-sized skilled nursing or AL providers to sell their real estate to REITs? Are REITs the highest-paying buyers? What are the risks to providers? Does this separation of real estate from operating company also make sense for hospitals?