Reimbursement

With doctors across the country continually on pins and needles regarding their reimbursement rates, proponents of telemedicine and telehealth are telling doctors the technologies offer them a stable revenue stream and lifestyle options.

In order for the country's healthcare system to survive in the next few years, every healthcare provider is going to have no choice but to make innovative changes and involve patients in the care process. So said longtime health IT advocate C. Peter Waegemann, founder of the now-defunct Medical Records Institute, during a webinar Thursday.

A report issued this week by the Government Accountability Office reports that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services overpaid the Medicare Advantage program run by private health insurers by between $3.2 billion and $5.1 billion for the years 2010-2012.

Management consulting firm Deloitte and Intermountain Healthcare have forged a five-year deal that will see the companies tap into nearly two trillion unique medical data elements collected over 40 years, with the goal of gaining treatment insights that can be shared with physicians, hospitals, manufacturers, vendors and payers across the country.

As the ICD-10 deadline looms closer, many healthcare organizations are still trying to come up with the most effective communications, collaboration and testing strategies to assure implementation of the diagnostic and procedural code set change. It is important to understand how cash flow is impacted and where and how to manage other resources.

By 2014, the core operating rules will likely have a major effect on reimbursement and revenue cycle processes and, as a result, payments, according to speakers who represented the payer, provider and banking perspectives at a Tuesday session titled "The Business Side of Care" during the 2013 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition.

Doctor-owned hospitals are earning many of the largest bonuses from the federal health law's new quality programs, even as the law halts their growth.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is expected to sign legislation expanding Medicaid eligibility and funding the state health insurance exchange with funds from an existing insurance tax.

U.S. healthcare prices dropped marginally in March 2013, falling 0.1 percent from February 2013 prices, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As the dust settles from the Supreme Court's ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the results of the presidential election and, more recently, the sequester cuts, acute care providers are now turning attention to the looming reimbursement cuts.