On May 7, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the story of patient Steve Zangla, who went to Riddle Hospital in Media for sharp and distressing abdominal pain. As is the…
Medicare is spending more money on drugs than ever before, and it's not because patients are taking more medications. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated its drug…
The number of patients meeting criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis may drop following the proposed revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), researchers suggested. Geared towards creating…
Since October, five ASCs have reported patient data stolen, compromised or breached through cyber attacks, stolen laptops and staff misdeeds. Columbus (Neb.) Surgery Center and Eye Physicians fell victim to…
CMS filed its annual Medicare inpatient payment update April 24, which would increase payments to hospitals next year and follow through on some of the administration's top healthcare promises, including…
Healthcare organizations are constantly producing and collecting medical data to help treat patients more effectively, and are also using the data for analytics purposes such as population health. Organizations need…
The rising cost of pharmaceuticals is a concern for people in all parts of the world, leading to some to forecast the spiraling costs are unsustainable. New technologies may hold…
An early morning breakfast at the AAFP's 2018 National Conference of Constituency Leaders that was billed as an update from CMS on the Quality Payment Program (QPP) turned into something…
Nursing homes are questioning if a proposed CMS pay model could pay them less for services provided to Medicare patients. On Friday, the CMS proposed the Patient-Driven Payment Model which…
Clinical documentation improvement (CDI) ensures that health services are accurately documented and helps healthcare coders and physicians work toward improved patient care while also streamlining productivity. When meaningful clinical data…
Prior to undertaking the necessary work against this set of activities, review Parts I and II of this series. Review definitions, and give more than passing glance at the ICD-10…
(Editor’s Note: Dr. Terri Lewis has been very critical of the CDC for not requiring data collection about chronicity or context of chronic disease. She has been discussing this issue…
(Editor’s Note: Dr. Terri Lewis has been very critical of the CDC for not requiring data collection about chronicity or context of chronic disease. This is the first of a…
Medicaid improper payments, including fraud, have spiked in recent years, reaching $37 billion in 2017, according to a government watchdog agency. And the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)…
Billing can be a frustrating part of physicians’ practices at a time when reimbursement is declining and administrative burdens are increasing on physicians and hospital systems. Adrian Velasquez, Wisconsin based…
Dr. John Cullen's four-physician family medicine practice in Valdez, Alaska, employs three full-time staffers who work on insurance and patient billing. A fourth full-timer focuses on obtaining prior authorizations from…