Unless Congress acts soon, Medicare payment for physicians will be chopped by 8.5% and a golden opportunity to reform prior authorization—a major administrative burden for physician practices—may slip away. The AMA is urging physicians to contact their legislators and let them know this is unfair, unacceptable and unsustainable.
UNC Medical Center opened an overflow unit for children with respiratory viruses on Wednesday, as an unceasing uptick in flu and RSV cases have pushed pediatric hospitals to a crisis shortage of beds.
As Americans are overwhelmed with medical bills, patient financing is now a multibillion-dollar business, with private equity and big banks lined up to cash in when patients and their families can't pay for care. By one estimate from research firm IBISWorld, profit margins top 29% in the patient financing industry, seven times what is considered a solid hospital margin.
Since the adoption of electronic healthcare records (EHR) became commonplace in hospitals and medical practices nearly two decades ago, more people have access to the records than before. Now more than ever, the practice of keeping accurate records has shifted to accommodate the move from paper to screen.
In Massachusetts acute care hospitals, the average emergency department (ED) attending physician and advanced practice clinician is more afraid of harming patients than about lawsuits, according to a new research letter published in JAMA Network Open. Fear of harm was also higher than fear of lawsuit regardless of clinician type, experience, or sex.
Automation and similar technologies are increasingly prevalent in revenue integrity but understanding best practices and long-term implications is still a major challenge. While organizations are learning how to best leverage technology as they adopt it, it’s just as important that revenue integrity leaders understand what these technologies can and can’t do.