Financial/Revenue Cycle Management

Meaningful use just might have its financial perks. That's according to the top 25 highest performing meaningful users under the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program, all of whom brought in some $171 million in Medicare payments back in 2012.

With consumers entranced by fast-evolving technologies and accustomed to price competition, healthcare is set to be transformed by innovations from other sectors of the economy such as retail and telecommunications, according to a new study by PwC's Health Research Institute.

KLAS spoke with more than 100 providers for the recently published ICD-10 consulting services report, in which providers revealed who they used for ICD-10 assessments/road maps, implementation/PMO resources, on-site training, eLearning and application testing. KLAS re-contacted several of these providers to ask how the delay will affect their strategy. Guess who is relieved, and who is frustrated.

Think the chances of getting a meaningful use audit are slim? Tell that to the folks who lost their job for doing it wrong, or folks at the four-hospital Scripps Health, who, all told, have undergone 11 meaningful use audits to date. Some say mock audits are indeed the right prescription.

Industry observers and insiders alike were a bit surprised that the American Medical Association did not appear overjoyed with the prospect of ICD-10 being pushed back. But, the organization had its reasons.

Perhaps if the Senate had voted down the doc pay patch, regrouped, come back with another stab at permanent SGR repeal, someone would have noticed Section 212 saying that HHS cannot mandate ICD-10 as the standard code set before Oct. 1, 2014, in effect delaying the deadline by another year.

There are two types of analytics projects: those boundary-pushing advancements that, where they do exist, are mainly the product of big hospitals and academic medical centers, and the humbler, more doable -- but sometimes just as valuable -- insights that can be gleaned by smaller providers.

The U.S. Senate voted to pass the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, which both pushes back the compliance deadline for ICD-10 and preserves the pay rate for doctors treating Medicare patients. Before those officially take hold, however, President Barack Obama has to sign the bill into law.

Healthcare IT is very good at collecting data, but are we using it to make good decisions?

Methodist Healthcare, an integrated health system in Memphis, Tenn., is giving its revenue cycle management a boost by automating its paper-based practices.