Reimbursement
I have to conclude that a recent campaign by a New York City urologist has to be skating mighty close to the ethical line.
The nation's largest pharmacy chain is tweaking its accountable care experiments, ending some relationships and starting others, as it embarks on another more potentially-disruptive venture.
You're sitting on too much money and have to spend it in the community, says one insurance commissioner, while another state regulator has different, minimum requirements.
For years, industry experts have been predicting a wholesale shift away from defined benefit health insurance plans to defined contribution. The reality, however, has been more complicated and nuanced.
In the year and years ahead for Medicaid, change will be driven as much by states as Washington, and managed care companies may have as many opportunities as challenges.
Public hospitals can be among the most aggressive in collecting debts from poor patients, not only garnishing their wages, but cleaning out their bank accounts.
If electronic funds transfer via ACH saves healthcare organizations' money and allows staff to focus on secondary billing and improve cash flow, why haven't more providers moved from check payments to EFT via ACH?
After a debut of health insurance marketplaces that fit all of the worst government contracting stereotypes, CMS has found a lead contractor to try to improve exchanges into the next decade.
When Healthcare Finance last year asked experts to name the top industry trends, they selected insurance exchanges, mergers and acquisitions, new payment models, and technology. Things don't look much different in 2015.
Will any of the new federally-backed cooperative insurers survive? To pro-business advocates skeptical of the Affordable Care Act in general, they are doomed and should be.