Claims Processing
The start date for Stage 2 of the meaningful use incentive program, expected to begin Oct. 1, 2013 for hospitals and Jan. 1, 2014 for eligible providers is once again up for discussion.
The $2.4 billion hospital RCM software and services industry expects double digit increases in 2014 because of business shifts, reimbursement and payment reforms, accountable care participation, ICD-10 coding challenges, physician practice acquisitions, collection issues, and overall declining margins.
A new poll by the American College of Physician Executives was prompted by a federal court judge's decision to overturn a longstanding injunction that prevented CMS from releasing information about payments to individual physicians.
Lisa Burdue, accounts receivable manager with Internal Medicine Specialists, a gastroenterology and nephrology clinic in Central Florida, has seen firsthand how state-of-the-art revenue cycle technologies can boost reimbursement.
Lee Powe, CIO of Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital in Elkin, North Carolina, talks about some of the toughest challenges the small community hospital faces, emphasizing the increased costs associated with readmission rates and RAC audits.
It's often said that our society is one steeped in impatience. We want fast Internet, quick news, overnight deliveries. This culture of instant gratification even pervades healthcare, as can be seen in the outcomes of CMS' Pioneer ACO model, which initially boasted 32 member organizations but recently saw nine jump ship -- with two groups washing their hands of the project altogether.
In a recent federal court decision that went quietly under the radar but further opened the door for healthcare cost transparency, a U.S. district judge ruled to vacate a 33-year-old injunction that prevented the release of Medicare claims data.
Jonathan Bush, CEO of athenahealth, treated the audience to an energetic keynote at Healthcare Datapalooza IV, offering up a great deal of humor and perspective on the state of data exchange, policy and the healthcare system at large.
Tenet Healthcare's $4.3 billion acquisition of Vanguard Health Systems is likely to bring more business athenahealth's way, Piper Jaffray analyst Sean Wieland concluded in a note he issued June 24, even as he offered up other possible scenarios, such as a MED3000 business win, or a boon for Cerner.
You'd be forgiven for thinking revenue cycle management technology is a bit, well, boring. You'd also be wrong. The coming years are going to see some big changes in the way hospitals get paid -- and the IT they use to track when and how they get paid is going to have to change as well.