Revenue Cycle Management

All the talk about moving healthcare reimbursement from volume to value sounds great, in theory. But how this shift takes place in practice is more complex than simply ending one form of payment and starting a new one.

I don't mean to pick on healthcare IT vendors, but they're going to be in for some tough criticism in 2014, according to the results of a Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange ICD-10 survey.

Planning for ICD-10 is overwhelming, but attempting the transition without a well-organized plan could be catastrophic for your organization. Here are five steps to help make your ICD-10 plan more manageable.

In an effort to raise awareness of hospital price variation, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and Anthem Blue Cross started a “reference pricing” initiative in 2011. It appears to be having an impact.

As healthcare enters its patient-centered, payment-bundled era, hospitals and physicians are looking for a shake-up in revenue cycle management.

Dual coding is probably the best idea to support the ICD-10 transition that many healthcare providers may not be able to afford. Here's why.

In an effort to achieve revenue gains, some hospitals have turned to improving clinical documentation. Putting in place a clinical documentation improvement program is a strategy that can lead to long-term financial stability.

Fee-for-service methodologies, especially relative-value units (RVUs), keep creeping back into alternative payment models like capitation. Maybe we should take the hint and adapt RVUs to the new environment rather than throwing them out the window.

To be successful, a hospital must acquire physician practices able to work in a world that is essentially foreign to what they are used to. The 'new normal' is based on value, outcomes and patient satisfaction.

"This is only a test" is one of those phrases meant to put people at ease. But when it comes to ICD-10 testing, maybe healthcare providers shouldn't be at ease.