Healthcare providers face two new rules certain to complicate a busy year already dominated by the pandemic. The nation’s capital is facing a tremendous number of complex issues this week. Amid all this, legislative activity on two healthcare policy initiatives has advanced in the past few weeks – and those two initiatives will add substantially […]
More than 80% of survey respondents stated that they have confidence in their organization’s ability to “rapidly adjust their plans and strategies.” Healthcare finance leaders are more optimistic about the ability to adjust to a changing business environment and utilize quality data in the decision-making process, according to the 2021 Healthcare Financial Trends Survey report released by Syntellis […]
Recently, HealthLeaders hosted its first ‘Virtual Happy Hour CFO Roundtable’ sponsored by Nuance, gathering executives to address the financial and technological challenges facing the health system during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The hour-long roundtable brought together healthcare executives from provider organizations ranging across the East Coast to the Midwest to delve into two key strategic […]
Medical device specialists often monitor the work of surgeons to provide case support during procedures in the operating room. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical proctoring has gone remote. “COVID has dramatically accelerated the need to have a remote tool, when you either don’t have access to the hospital, or when there are travel restrictions […]
Healthcare forecasting that can adapt quickly to changes could be as critical to a provider organization’s survival in 2021 as wearing a mask to stop the spread of COVID-19, experts at PwC’s Health Research Institute are saying. Nearly three-quarters of healthcare executives (74 percent) recently surveyed by the Health Research Institute said their organizations would […]
The telehealth industry saw demand surge significantly this spring as Covid-19 began. Telehealth appointments are ideal for a pandemic: patients can seek an informed opinion about their symptoms and be referred for a medical test without having to go to the office physically and placing people at risk. But while the focus on telehealth has […]
Hospitals and health systems are facing a growing volume of claim denials, with private plan prior authorization issues driving the recent increase, according to a new report from the American Hospital Association (AHA). For the report, AHA surveyed more than 200 hospitals and health systems in 2019 to understand the impacts utilization management practices employed by commercial […]
The current pandemic continues to affect the healthcare supply chain continuum, such as by disrupting the flow of critical supplies and equipment such as PPE, ventilators, and masks. Due to the increased demand for critical supplies, providers are incurring additional costs as they work to meet the needs of patients and staff. COVID-19 has also […]
CMS continues to phase in the Quality Payment Program while MACRA mandates loom. The long-awaited Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) final rule, now pending publication in the Federal Register, finalizes proposed updates to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) and its two tracks — the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternate Payment Models (APMs) — for performance year […]
After some delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS has released the final rule for the 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. The final rule unveiled by CMS yesterday evening will dictate how much Medicare physicians get paid for delivering care starting January 1, 2021. In the rule, CMS finalized a conversion factor of $32.41, which is a […]