Accounting & Financial Management
The healthcare system has been pretty much a business-to-business sector, but from October, two big things change. Millions of unpredictable individuals enter the market as consumers, and the underlying risk calculation shifts from one that is largely clear and underwritten, to one that depends on a precarious balance.
The Medical Group Management Association 2013 annual conference will offer a granular focus on the policy and technology issues that matter to physician practices, said Robert Tennant, MGMA's senior policy advisor.
Most hospitals do a solid job of managing patient receivables and associated bad debt expense, but even well performing organizations are quick to say there is always room for improvement.
Health insurers have reached out to consumers in a blitz of in-person, online and networked information and events so those who need coverage or want to change their current individual coverage will know how to connect with and be comfortable with the health insurance exchanges.
Hospitals that utilize mobile health vans will tell anyone that bringing needed services to people in underserved areas improves population health, but with accountability and cost effectiveness increasingly important, there is a need to understand the potential financial return on this kind of service.
Our weekly look at career moves in the healthcare finance sector. This issue highlights promotions, hires and fires for the week ending September 13, 2013.
Contractors hired by Medicare to audit the payment records of healthcare providers have a good track record spotting improper billing, the HHS Inspector General concluded in a recent report, but legitimate concerns about their efficacy exist.
CMS is applying a 1.8 percent payment update to IRF PPS rates for FY 2014, derived from a 2.6 percent market basket update that is reduced by a 0.5 percentage point multi-factor productivity adjustment and an additional 0.3 percentage point reduction as required by the ACA.
During the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, 92 percent of the $95 million Alabama received in enrollment bonuses for the Children's Health Insurance Program was "not allowable in accordance with federal requirements," according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General.
Is it realistic to expect Accountable Care Organizations to achieve their cost-reduction targets in the first year of their programs? The experience of the original 32 Pioneer ACOs is suggestive.