The ED-ICU model has the potential to improve the value of healthcare delivery, as it has been shown to improve care quality and have little impact on emergency department costs. Total cost per emergency department (ED) patient encounter remained unchanged at an academic medical center after it implemented an emergency department-based intensive care unit (ED-ICU), […]
Healthcare policies and rules are continuously changing, and it’s important to stay on top of what all insurance carriers are doing and how their changes impact your practice’s revenue cycle. This, as well as managing your accounts receivable (A/R), is the best way to ensure your cash flow does not bottleneck and cause damage to […]
Industry experts explain the intricacies of the 2021 E/M coding guidelines. During the Evaluation and Management (E/M) Panel general session, an expert panel made up of a physician, coder, auditor, payer, and a representative from the American Medical Association (AMA) answered audience questions regarding the 2021 E/M coding guidelines for office/outpatient visits. The panelists were […]
Outcomes-based models are spreading, but fee-for-service still dominates payment landscape. Is value-based care having a moment? Health care policy experts and institutions have long agreed that fee-for-service (FFS) medicine is wasteful, outmoded and at least partially responsible for the U.S. spending far more than peer nations on health care, but with outcomes that are no […]
Medicare overpayments totaled $39.3 million between September 2016 and December 2021, but most of those improper payments occurred before CMS corrected its system edits error in May 2019. CMS system edits helped reduce Medicare overpayments to acute care hospitals for outpatient services provided to beneficiaries who were inpatients of other facilities, a report from the […]
Five priorities are identified in the mission of CMS Office of Minority Health, “Working to Achieve Health Equity.” The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has five key priority areas that are expected to drive how the agency will, within a span of 10 years, accomplish its stated goal to achieve health equity. Priority […]
The AMA updated consultation services for 2023. The American Medical Association (AMA) announced major revisions to Evaluation and Management (E&M) Services for Jan 1, 2023. The E&M categories that will undergo revision in 2023 include inpatient and observation care services, emergency department services, consultations, nursing facility services, home and residence services, and prolonged services. Revisions […]
Supply chain issues, medication costs, and labor challenges sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the spiking hospital expenses. Hospital expenses have increased 23 percent since 2016, a spike researchers attributed to continuous COVID-19 challenges, according to a recent analysis. By analyzing American Hospital Association data, investigators noticed hospital expenses increased 47 percent in 2020when […]
Three common myths about the effectiveness of telehealth are exactly that – myths, according to two new studies that examined its use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerns about telehealth have stymied its use nationwide, but those fears are unwarranted, said researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). They examined data for the first […]
An 8.5% cut to Medicare payments could affect patient care in medical practices across the country. Reducing charity care, new Medicare patients, staff, and locations all are among the effects projected if Congress does not act on 2023 reimbursement levels, according to a new study by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). The findings came […]