Revenue Cycle Management
One of the biggest challenges hospitals face is getting paid. There's a long list of headaches contributing to a very challenging landscape in the medical billing world. Michele Hilton, general manager of medical billing services, ADP AdvancedMD, offers a little painkiller cocktail to preemptively strike against the headaches of medical billing.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) on Friday debated how to change the payment method for chronically critically ill patients in acute care and long-term care hospitals so they are more accurate and based on patient needs.
The Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) requires health plans to spend at least 80 or 85 percent of premiums on medical expenses and quality improvement - 80 percent for small groups and individuals and 85 percent for large groups.
With recent studies indicating that music reduces agitation and depression in people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease, long-term care operators have begun adding music therapy programs to the services they offer residents. One operator is finding that using music therapy is benefitting the business as well as the residents.
The move to electronic health records could mean more money should be earmarked from general services budgets.
Implementing a self-pay revenue cycle strategy is probably one of the biggest challenges facing hospital financial executives. As healthcare providers are more focused than ever before on increasing revenue, this issue has become that much more important to a successful overall revenue cycle strategy.
Participation in a national hospital project has shown one small Maine hospital the importance of business intelligence tools as it adapts to a value-based business model.
Maryland officials have proposed what analysts call the most ambitious initiative in the country to control soaring medical spending, a plan that would bring relief to employers and consumers footing the bill while bluntly challenging the state's powerful hospital industry.
With no federal rules telling providers how they can spend their meaningful use incentive checks, hospitals and practices have their options wide open. While many are investing in more technology, that's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC), researchers from America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) found that from 2008 to 2010 inpatient hospital prices increased by 8.2 percent each year with a wide variation in price levels and growth rates from state to state.