Reimbursement

Finding ways to create a payment model that rewards high-quality outcomes, reduces avoidable costs and protects payer and provider margins is the focus of the Monday morning education session, "Bridging the Payer and Provider Gap: Creating a Shared-Savings Payment Model for Increased Quality and Efficiency," at the HFMA's ANI: The Healthcare Finance Conference in Orlando.

The Healthcare Financial Management Association has named 12 healthcare organizations as winners of the 2011 MAP Award for High Performance in Revenue Cycle. Winners will be recognized at the upcoming ANI: The Healthcare Finance Conference.

How can healthcare finance executives drive value for their organizations? That question will be front and center at the upcoming ANI: The Healthcare Finance Conference, sponsored by the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

QuadraMed, which develops software for healthcare information management, and Elsevier, the publisher of scientific, technical and medical information, have announced an alliance that combines QuadraMed's training tools with Elsevier's educational courses to ease ICD-10 transition.

The average medical claims error rate in 2010 climbed to 19.3 percent, a two percent increase from the previous year, according to the American Medical Association's fourth annual National Health Insurer Report Card.

Medicaid managed care plans run by publicly traded, for-profit insurers have higher administrative costs and lower quality of care, according to a brief released last week by the Commonwealth Fund.

The government has found a new high-tech way to crack down on fraud in the Medicare program – predictive modeling. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said last week the initiative would start on July 1.

Wisconsin's budget bill passed earlier this week drops a provision for public hearings to be held in advance of any cuts to BadgerCare, the state's Medicaid program. The move comes as the state is looking to trim nearly $500 million from BadgerCare as part of the state's effort to balance the budget.

Overall U.S. healthcare prices continued to rise slowly, increasing 0.1 percent from April 2011 to May 2011, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Council For Affordable Quality Healthcare's Committee on Operating Rules for Information Exchange (CAQH CORE) will collaborate with the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) on activities related to harmonizing electronic data interchange standards and operating rules across healthcare.