Revenue Cycle Management
In case anyone was wondering, the RACs haven't gone away for good. They're just taking a vacation. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced a "pause" in RAC audits last month, in preparation for the procurement of the next round of RAC contracts.
The Obama Administration released its proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2015 this week. Virtually all types of healthcare providers, health plans, and drug manufacturers would be impacted by the budget provisions if adopted as proposed - although that is an unlikely scenario.
There's still plenty of work to do before the Oct. 1 ICD-10 deadline. A recent study found that only 4.8 percent of physician practices reported significant progress in overall ICD-10 readiness. Hospitals report higher levels, but many are still behind.
The number of people determined eligible for Medicaid since the launch of new insurance marketplaces is approaching 10 million, according to new data released from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Tenet Healthcare Corp., the nation's third largest for-profit hospital operator, said Tuesday it expects 15 percent of its uninsured patients to get covered this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act.
With the threat of significant reimbursement losses, hospitals and health systems are feeling the pressure of getting the transition to ICD-10 right.
The recent delay of the employer mandate for medium-sized businesses will harm not-for-profit hospitals because it postpones increased revenues from expanded coverage of previously uninsured patients and the subsequent reduction in bad debt and charity care it would bring, a Moody's report said.
Because health system operators reacted quickly to manage payment cuts and lower patient volumes, Moody's Investors Service has upgraded its for-profit hospital outlook to positive from stable.
A newly released update to the landmark 2008 Nachimson study says two-thirds of practices would fall in the upper range of implementation cost projections.
Predictive analytics is becoming an important part of the revenue cycle in hospitals in the effort to deliver higher quality care at lower cost.