The Office of Inspector General of HHS has issued a report saying that CMS likely overpaid for office visits in Medicare by $6.7 billion and recommended that CMS take efforts to recover this money and to track abusive physicians better. CMS basically blew OIG off, I mean after all, what's a few billion more of wasted taxpayer funds.
The Center for Public Integrity has launched a series of articles on how Medicare Advantage plans use diagnostic coding to secure higher reimbursements, like adding to pressure to reform payments and the practice of home visits to secure diagnostic codes.
Premier, the large hospital group purchasing company, issued results from a survey of hospital leaders, showing the 40% are dissatisfied with their EHR, but they expect HIT to be the area with their largest capital expenditures. These leaders said the biggest drivers of health care costs are labor costs and legislative and regulatory requirements.
SmartPay Solutions received $1.4 million in new financing to assist in development and growth of its new approach to workers' compensation payments.
http://www.ctinnovations.com/story/57
Jun052014
Not that we really need any more evidence, but a Government Accounting Office report finds that physicians who own a physical therapy practice refer more Medicare beneficiaries to physical therapy than do doctors with no ownership interest, although less services per beneficiary are received. This suggests that those with an ownership interest are referring patients with less of a need.
http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/662860.pdf
Jun042014
Availity, a provider of health information exchange services, has acquired RevPoint Healthcare Technologies to bolster its capabilities to help providers with revenue collection from patients.
According to a survey, one third of Americans say that the health reform law implementation will cause them to delay retirement because of higher health care costs.
NetHealth, which provides EMR and office management software to outpatient specialty departments, has acquired ReDoc, which helps therapists with documentation and billing.
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.