Category: Revenue Cycle Management

Patient Billing Disputes

How Hospitals Avoid or Reduce Patient Billing Disputes

CMS’ reworked the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, to simplify reporting requirements for providers in its 2020 Physician Fee Schedule Quality Payment Program Final Rule.Patient billing disputes result in more work for hospital staff and can potentially stand in the way of timely payment for services. However, many organizations are making efforts to avoid or reduce […]
EM Code

Final Physician Payment Rule Keeps E/M Code Changes

CMS on Friday issued its 2020 final rules for the Physician Fee Schedule, including a streamlining of evaluation and management services (E/M) reporting that was rolled back from an earlier proposal in a change providers applauded. The final rule, which is mostly unchanged from the proposed rule put forward in July, also cuts payments to physical therapists […]
Revenue Cycle Modernization

5 Ways To Modernize The Revenue Cycle

The healthcare revenue cycle has become even more complex in recent years for several reasons, including increased patient financial responsibility, more complicated payer contracts and greater regulatory demands. As a result, providers across the nation have been forced to change their approaches to revenue cycle modernization. Despite attempts to modernize the revenue cycle to meet […]
Medicaid Payments

Adjusting Medicaid Payments for Social Determinants to Boost Care

Using a per-person adjustment for Medicaid payments to hospitals would address social determinants of health and help hospitals fund more comprehensive care, experts say. Adjusting Medicaid payments for social determinants of health would help address the broader social needs of children and cost restraints at safety-net hospitals, according to researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of […]
OPPS Rule

2020 Outpatient Proposals: 5 Rules You Should Know From CMS

Hospital and health system executives should monitor these proposals for provisions that will affect their organizations’ operations. The 2020 annual rule cycle has been active for CMS. Several proposals in the outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) proposed rule is controversial, although there is at least one provider-friendly change. Here’s a roundup of five regulatory rules […]
Online Appointment Scheduling

What Patients Want During Online Appointment Scheduling? To Not Talk To Anyone

Patients prefer online scheduling to talking on the phone, a new report shows. Patients would rather make their healthcare appointments online without speaking to anyone, a new report reveals. However, the report doesn’t address how such a model might impact revenue cycles that want to do pre-service insurance verification and collections. The report, from the […]
Emergency Department Revenue Cycle

7 Best Practices to Improve Professional Fee Revenue Cycle for Better ED Bottom Lines

Most healthcare organizations partner with physician services groups for niche coverage. While outsourced medical services are available across all specialties, common areas for external physician support include anesthesia, radiology, wound care, and emergency medicine. However, when outsourced physician services are used, challenges to ensure accurate reimbursement for both components of care—the hospital portion and the […]