Stephanie Bouchard
Over the last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued proposed changes that will update payment policies and rates for physicians, dialysis facilities and for services to Medicare beneficiaries in hospital outpatient departments and decrease Medicare payments to home health agencies.
A 2010 Government Accountability Office survey of physicians who serve children found that physicians have a harder time referring their pediatric patients in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to specialty care than they do when they refer children covered by private insurance.
A U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati upheld the individual mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Wednesday. The ruling was the first to address the constitutionality of the healthcare reform act's requirement that everyone purchase health insurance or be penalized.
Experian is expanding its healthcare business by purchasing Medical Present Value, a revenue cycle management company headquartered in Austin, Texas, for $185 million.
No matter what reimbursement or delivery model healthcare organizations decide on, success in the healthcare reform era requires three core components – the right physician leaders, the right executives and the right technology infrastructure.
U.S. Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and 26 co-sponsors have introduced the Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act, which would allow physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinic nurse specialists and certified nurse midwives to order home health services for Medicare beneficiaries.
Rising healthcare costs are the key fiscal problem the United States faces, said former White House budget director Peter Orszag during a press conference Thursday, and the best solution to the problem is a provider-value approach.
In all the talk around healthcare reform, the issue of meeting medical transportation needs of the burgeoning senior population hasn't received a lot of press, but as the healthcare system grapples with how it will manage an estimated 70 million Americans who will be age 65 and older by 2030, industry insiders say it's imperative the issue be addressed.
UnitedHealthcare is suing the Department of Defense over the loss of its TRICARE South Region contract. The health insurance company has been fighting for reinstatement of the contract it was originally awarded in 2009 but lost last February.
When the United States economy was dominated by farming and manufacturing work, the motivational emphasis was on getting paid for more output: The more widgets you produced, the more money you earned, but that employment model is on the downswing, says Tim Kilpatrick, a revenue cycle consultant with Dell Services.