Two doctors groups with Scripps Health in San Diego are terminating contracts with private Medicare plans over concerns about payments and routine denials. Experts say these disputes could be an early warning sign of more contract terminations ahead as hospitals and large doctor groups seek lucrative payments to offset inflation, healthcare workers' double-digit raises and escalating prices for medical supplies.
Brian Potter, senior vice president of finance at the WHA, said the situation isn’t a big cause for concern unless this downward trend continues. Supplies and services are a hospital’s biggest expense, and those costs are rising. According to the report, those expenses have climbed 26.7 percent since 2019. Salary and fringe benefits are hospitals’ second-highest expense, making up 42 percent of their costs.
The Biden administration dropped a new proposal Friday designed to fix the controversial dispute resolution process that's part of the federal surprise billing ban.
The aim of the affiliation is to leverage the economies of scale for rural hospitals in purchasing supplies, including medical scanners and other big-ticket items, and attracting doctors and nurses, The network allows hospitals to enhance the quality of care “in an increasingly challenging health care marketplace,” according to a PMCN statement.
About 800,000 nurses plan to leave the workforce by 2027, and more than half of newly graduated nurses are leaving the profession within two years. The reasons why this is happening have nothing to do with a lack of passion for the profession or care for patients. Rather, it has everything to do with poor working conditions that stem from an outdated reimbursement model for nursing services.
State leaders began implementing a new law requiring people with certain diagnoses to be moved out of the Montana State Hospital. House Bill 29 says, by June 30, 2025, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services must begin transferring patients out of MSH and into community-based services if they have a primary diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or traumatic brain injury. There’s still a lot to be determined before that deadline arrives.