Reimbursement

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is implementing an interesting method to highlight out-of-network costs and to reduce them.

A company offering Web-based billing management software for small physician practices is looking to boost business with a new infusion of cash.

CarePayment Technologies, Inc., a Portland, Ore.-based provider of financial and patient advocacy services for healthcare providers, has acquired San Francisco-based Vitality Financial, which provides hospital payment solutions to medical providers and patients.

If anyone doubted that (a) insurers would fight back against the coverage requirements of PPACA or (b) that those being regulated will always have the advantage over the regulators, or (c) there's no free lunch, these items should rapidly dispel the illusion.

Now that we know the RACs are rolling out their reviews of claims related to medical necessity (Regions B, C and D), it is worthwhile to consider once again how individual providers will plan and react to this challenge.

In an effort to help financial institutions understand how the HITECH Act and HIPAA directly affects their operations, four industry trade groups recently banded together to release a white paper "Compliance Guidelines for Financial Institutions in the Healthcare Sector: HITECH and the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules."

Joining an ever-growing number of health plans looking to help their members access health information wherever they may roam, Highland has announced the launch of its Highmark Health@Hand iPhone application. The app provides members with a host of features, including the ability to find the closest Highmark participating providers including hospitals, urgent care facilities, retail clinics and pharmacies.

In a deal that adds a host of services to its online benefits shopping, management and enrollment platform, Benefitfocus announced mid-August its acquisition of Benefit Informatics Inc., a benefit information management company specializing in data analytics, forecasting, financial analysis and data warehousing.

Hospitals are making progress on collecting and reporting healthcare-associated infection (HAI) data to a national network, according to a new survey by the Premier healthcare alliance.

Three in ten Americans reported they would use their cell or smart phone to track and monitor their personal health, and 40 percent would be willing to pay for a remote monitoring device that sends health information directly to their doctor, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute.