Revenue Cycle Management

Value-based purchasing introduces the potential for unintended consequences, and needs to be monitored to avoid disparities between hospitals. But it's too early to claim that VBP puts disproportionate share hospitals at a disadvantage.

The Recovery Audit Contractor, or RAC, program is on vacation. CMS has slowed down audit activity in advance of new contracts. Still, this is no time for hospitals to get complacent about their audit management programs.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act is likely to lead to increased profitability for hospital emergency departments.

Determining insurance eligibility and estimating patient payment are two of the most overlooked steps in patient engagement and the revenue cycle process. Yet, they're also two of the simplest things a provider can do to maximize revenue and profitability.

New revenue streams can offset financial losses experienced by providers due to lower utilization, especially within the hospital setting. One way providers can grow revenue is by offering health insurance products.

Aggregated clinical data are essential to managing population health. But analyzing the financial health of various service lines is a complex undertaking.

Hospitals are educating their staff and reworking their processes to comply with Medicare's two-midnight rule, which will likely reduce hospital revenue by shifting patients from inpatient to outpatient status.

Keeping a hospital's revenue cycle healthy while transitioning to outcome-based quality payments requires both a "hard" and "soft" approach.

While gamification is trending in the healthcare sector today for engaging patients, CFOs may wonder how useful video gaming can be for managing costs.

Lack of preparation, even with the implementation delay, spells revenue cycle disruption.