The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced earlier this year that there will be a new release of star quality ratings for hospitals in the United States in an effort to assist consumers with selecting a provider. Amidst challenges from the industry regarding the effects of the new star ratings, the CMS has postponed [...]
The CMS announced The Comprehensive Primary Care Plus initiative on Monday that plans to transform the delivery and reimbursement for primary care in the United States. In the initiative, the CMS will pay a monthly fee to practices to manage about 25 million patients.A Look at the NumbersThe initiative will be implemented in up to [...]
In an ever-changing environment such as the healthcare industry, it may seem intimidating for practices, especially smaller or independent practices, to conquer all of the compliance requirements and jump through all of the hurdles that come with the healthcare regulations and rules. Although seemingly deterring, it is beneficial for practices to develop and execute a [...]
The claims reimbursement process can have a strong impact on the health of the revenue cycle and an efficient billing office with an organized process for processing claims can help keep the revenue cycle strong. RevCycle Intelligence has put together top strategies for revenue cycle management and claim reimbursement:Increase Up-Front Cash CollectionAccording to a study from [...]
February 24, 2016 // Healthcare Billing & Management AssociationIn a February 22nd blog post, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will implement new strategies to strengthen its provider screening activities to combat fraud and abuse by preventing ineligible or potentially fraudulent providers from enrolling as Medicare providers. These actions come in response [...]
Written by Dave Jakielo // January 22, 2016 // Healthcare Billing & Management AssociationGiven the complexity of today's revenue cycle processes, it takes the specialized skill of medical billing professionals to ensure your practices' economic success and compliance with the many government regulations. Billing is no longer something someone does to fill in the time [...]
Written by Carrie Pallardy // March 2, 2016 // Becker's HealthcareDuring HIMSS16, three health IT leaders gave a presentation on patient engagement for four different generations.Patricia Wise, vice president of health information systems with HIMSS, Christina Hoffman, vice president with Medscape/WebMD, and Jamie DeMaria, senior vice president with Medscape/WebMD, shared eight insights into engaging healthcare consumers, [...]
Written by Carrie Pallardy // March 2, 2016 // Becker's HealthcareHospitals, health systems, payers and any organization with stewardship of healthcare data are prime targets for cyberattacks. And there are plenty of cautionary tales showing just how much damage hackers can do, with the recent Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center ransomware attack and last year's massive [...]
Written by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ServicesThe CMS has released an informative toolkit for providers on assessing and maintaining their progress with ICD-10. The toolkit provides tips and resources for providers to assess their progress, address their findings and troubleshoot any issues, and maintain their progress with ICD-10. A key tip in the toolkit [...]
Written by Melanie Evans // February 16, 2016 // Modern Healthcare(This story was updated at 4 p.m. Eastern.) The Obama administration and health insurers took a step Tuesday toward standardizing and improving the measures that are intended to gauge the quality of healthcare but are widely criticized as too burdensome for providers and too numerous [...]