Uncategorized

Surprise Medical Billing Problem Growing Worse

Insured patients are getting more surprise medical bills, and more expensive surprise medical bills, even as Congress attempts to tackle this problem. According to a new study, 42.8 percent of emergency department patients now receive surprise medical bills for out-of-network services, up from 32.3 percent in 2010, with those surprise bills rising from a mean of $220 in 2010 to $628 in 2016. Patients experience similar frustrations with inpatient visits, with surprise bills for out-of-network services arriving in the mailboxes of 42 percent of patients in 2016, up from 26.3 percent in 2010. Those surprise bills rose from a mean [...]

iqtsupport2019-08-15T10:06:29-04:00August 15, 2019|Uncategorized|

New Public Charge Rule Could Affect Immigrants, Providers

Legal immigrants may become reluctant to seek government-sponsored health care and providers may find themselves delivering more uncompensated care in the wake of the adoption of a new federal “public charge” regulation that seeks to define more narrowly the kinds of individuals who should be granted entry to the U.S. in the future. The new Department of Homeland Security regulation, while focused on applicants for entry into the U.S., could have the unintended effect of discouraging legal immigrants from enrolling in Medicaid, CHIP, and other government programs and even lead them to disenroll from such programs out of a mistaken [...]

iqtsupport2019-08-14T09:26:39-04:00August 14, 2019|Uncategorized|

Update Patient Satisfaction Survey, Hospital Groups Suggest

The survey that asks patients about their satisfaction with their hospital experience should be revised, several hospital groups have declared. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey has become outdated and needs revision, according to the Federation of American Hospitals, the American Hospital Association, America’s Essential Hospitals, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Catholic Health Association of America. According to the hospital groups, the 32-question HCAHPS survey needs to be updated to address more effectively matters involving value-based care, health care technology, patient priorities, and post-discharge transitional care. The groups also called for the survey [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-30T06:00:39-04:00July 30, 2019|Uncategorized|

Governors Look at Surprise Medical Bills

While action on surprise medical bills may be slow in coming at the federal level, many states have introduced measures to address this challenge and others are exploring possible actions. Since 2017, 11 states have introduced surprise medical bill laws, six of them doing so this year alone. Surprise billing is an issue of importance to the nation’s governors, and their professional group, the National Governors Association, has prepared a report outlining the key issues they must address when attempting to craft surprise billing policies. Learn more about what governors view as the key considerations in developing such policies in [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-26T09:57:52-04:00July 26, 2019|Uncategorized|

New Client

DeBrunner & Associates is pleased to welcome our newest client: the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. As Pennsylvania’s largest non-governmental employer, with more than 87,000 employees, UPMC consists of more than 30 hospitals, more than 700 doctors' offices and outpatient sites, an international division, and an enterprises division. Welcome!

iqtsupport2019-05-08T06:00:46-04:00May 8, 2019|Uncategorized|

Healthier Behavior Could Yield Sweet News

Improved behavior could save lives and money, two recent studies show. A report published by the JAMA Network found that if just one percent of Medicaid recipients stopped smoking, Medicaid would save $2.6 billion a year, with a median annual state savings of $25 million. Another study, posted by AHA Journals, concludes that improved nutrition labeling that better highlights products’ sugar content could change behavior in ways that would save more than $30 billion in health care costs over the next 20 years – and as much as nearly $60 billion if manufacturers respond to improved sugar labeling by re-engineering [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-22T10:48:20-04:00April 22, 2019|Uncategorized|

Groups Work to Create New Codes for Social Determinants

Social determinants of health could have their own ICD-10 codes if a new initiative from the American Medical Association and United Healthcare succeeds. The two are working together to develop new ICD-10 codes that would take into consideration social determinants of health such as housing and food security, access to transportation, and ability to pay for medicine. The project launches at a time when research suggests that social determinants of health can affect nearly 80 percent of health care outcomes. Learn more in the Health Analytics IT article “AMA, UnitedHealth Partner for Social Determinants ICD-10 Project.”

iqtsupport2019-04-08T06:00:59-04:00April 8, 2019|Uncategorized|

Moody’s: Challenging Times Ahead for Academic Medical Centers

Academic medical centers will struggle in the near future, according to Moody’s Investor Services. While academic medical centers still have a number of strengths – offering higher-end services, high demand for their inpatient services, and generally strong cash flow margins – they also face a number of challenges that make life more difficult for them in a value-based payment world. Among those challenges, most notably, are higher costs associated with teaching and research, higher-acuity patients, and payment pressure from insurers. Another challenge: the shrinking gap between academic medical center hospitals and others as more care is delivered on an outpatient [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-04T06:00:55-04:00April 4, 2019|Uncategorized|

Bill Would Enable Foreign-Born Docs to Work in Underserved U.S. Areas

More foreign-born, U.S.-trained doctors would be permitted to remain in the U.S. if they practice in medically underserved areas under a bill unveiled last week in Congress. Introduced with bipartisan support, the legislation would extend for two years the current “Conrad 30” program that allocates 30 slots to each state so foreign-born doctors can work in medically underserved areas under J-1 visas. The program, which already exists but will soon expire, permits such physicians to remain in the U.S. for three years after their training ends to work in underserved areas. The legislation also would establish criteria under which more [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-02T06:00:17-04:00April 2, 2019|Uncategorized|

Feds Seek More EHR in Post-Acute-Care Settings

Electronic health records may find their way into more post-acute-care settings as a result of a request for information published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In the RFI, CMS notes that EHR adoption has been slow in the post-acute sector and asks stakeholders what it can do to accelerate the adoption of technology designed to facilitate communication among caregivers. While EHR adoption has occurred in other areas, its use is less common in the post-acute sector, and even when used, it is used more for record-keeping than for communication among providers. EHR use and interoperability among acute-care [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-27T15:17:31-04:00March 27, 2019|Uncategorized|