Healthcare provisions in massive legislation could improve care access but also reduce federal funding for some hospitals
In pending legislation, reductions to disproportionate share hospital payments would be used to subsidize commercial insurance for low-income residents of states that haven’t expanded Medicaid.
The pandemic cast a new light on mental health, and telemedicine provided a new avenue to access. How is the industry likely to view mental health and behavioral health in the future?
Dr. Ranga Krishnan of Rush University System for Health discusses the future of mental health payment and practice. He addresses how provider organizations can address workforce shortages by becoming partners in training and by changing the way they provide care to patients. He also talks about improving mental and behavioral healthcare in a value-based payment environment.
Additional requirements are needed to make healthcare price transparency worthwhile, report states
Updates to price transparency regulations should address compliance and formatting and incorporate new data elements.
Hospitals and Congress propose improvements to prior authorization processes in Medicare Advantage
The American Hospital Association says pending regulations that would affect prior authorization should be expanded to include Medicare Advantage.
Research highlights ways to save more than $250 billion per year through healthcare administrative simplification
Savings can be generated at the organizational and healthcare industry levels through steps to reduce wasteful administrative processes, study authors wrote.
Healthcare News of Note: Healthcare insurers owe hospitals billions of dollars in payments and are putting more patients in a bind with retroactive claim denials, says Kaiser Health News
Healthcare News of Note for healthcare finance professionals is a roundup of recent news articles: Insurers are behind in billions of dollars in payments to hospitals, the strain on clinicians and staff grows amid the pandemic, and CFO duties involve more digital activities and investor relations.
The finalized arbitration process in new surprise-billing regulations appears to favor insurers over hospitals
A new rule establishes a process for resolving payment disputes between health plans and hospitals when regulations on surprise billing begin in 2022.
Healthcare News of Note: U.S. will be short 3.2 million lower-wage healthcare workers within 5 years, says Mercer
Healthcare News of Note for healthcare finance professionals is a roundup of recent news articles: Shortages of lower-wage healthcare workers, nurses, physicians and mental health staff are expected, PHI security and burnout are of concern to most healthcare professionals, and the pandemic is expected to affect health insurance rates.
Site-of-care payment issues get highlighted by UnitedHealthcare and MedPAC
A new report issued by a leading health plan is the latest sign that hospitals and health systems can expect payers to ramp up implementation of site-neutral payments.
Recipients of COVID-19 vaccine boosters won’t have to pay anything out of pocket, CMS confirms
Medicare beneficiaries will owe nothing out of pocket for receiving an authorized booster dose, and the same applies to almost all Medicaid beneficiaries and most commercial health plan members.