When Erin Williams-Reavis faced a $3,500 surgery bill, the hospital offered to let her pay in $300 monthly installments. It was too much, said Williams-Reavis, 44, who lives in Greensboro, about an hour west of the state capital. Her hours as a personal assistant had been cut, and she and her husband were behind on bills, even requesting a forbearance on their mortgage.
A new report from Sg2 utilized patient-level data and local market trends to forecast patient volumes over the next decade. Notably, while hospital inpatient volume is set to recover to pre-pandemic levels, it is only expected to grow 2% past that. Hospital inpatient days will increase at an 8% growth rate, however, and tertiary patient days at 17%, due to an expected increase in chronic conditions.
Ensuring accurate, appropriate reimbursement isn’t simply a financial function—it’s fundamental to supporting patient care. NAHRI Advisory Board member Jugna Shah, MPH, CHRI, president of Nimitt Consulting, Inc., in Spicer, Minnesota, discusses how advocating for fair reimbursement and payment systems and raising awareness of the rules governing hospital pricing is fundamental to revenue integrity.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its annual report on the top financial concerns facing servicemembers, veterans, and military families, based on the complaints they submitted to the CFPB. Servicemembers told the CFPB about billing inaccuracies and that debt collectors used aggressive tactics to recover allegedly unpaid medical bills. Servicemembers also reported failures by credit reporting companies in helping to resolve inaccuracies and other credit reporting issues.
A new bill in the North Carolina General Assembly would make the Tar Heel State one of the best in the nation at protecting patients from crippling medical bills and predatory debt collection.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed a new law by Republican Louisiana U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy to prevent predatory surprise medical billing stopped 2 million such bills in the first two months of 2022.