According to the federal government, one in five elderly patients is readmitted to a hospital within 30 days after leaving that hospital. Though many of those readmissions are unavoidable owing to the unexpected change in the patient’s condition or a planned follow-up...
ICD-10 Extensions for Radiology Practices
With ICD-10 deadline extension, radiology practices now have an extra year for preparation and they should utilize this opportunity to prepare well for the transition. When the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) was signed on April 1, 2014, the American...
Endocrinologist Shortage Worsens While Patient Demands Increase
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) more number of Americans became insured with the objective to gain increased access to healthcare. But, what if there aren’t enough specialists to handle the rising number of patients? According to a recent...
Medicare Outpatient Payments for Hospitals to be Increased by 2.1%
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a proposal to increase Medicare payments to hospitals for the care that they provide on an outpatient basis. The new proposal provides an increase in hospital outpatient payments by 2.1% in the...
Implications of Medicare Payment Rise for Outpatient Care
When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released prospective Medicare payment rules for 2015 recently, they proposed a 2% increase in outpatient visit reimbursements for hospitals and a 1.2% hike for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). As the...
Some Facts about Ebola Virus – Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment
Ebola hemorrhagic fever, identified by ICD-10 diagnostic code A98.4 has taken toll of around 1,000 people. It needs to be effectively managed to avoid an outbreak of epidemic proportions. Some Facts about Ebola Virus – Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment Ebola is...
US Medicaid Enrollment Reaches 6.7 Million
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to expand the health insurance coverage to millions of Americans through a combination of public programs and private-sector health insurance expansions. A recent report reveals that the new enrollments in Obamacare's Medicaid...
Impact of New Gastroenterology Procedure Coding Changes
When the American Medical Association (AMA) released the 2014 Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code set, 25 percent of all changes constituted those made to the gastroenterology codes. The changes include 26 new codes, 41...
New Study Findings on EHR Switching Trends
Electronic health record (EHR) adoption rate continues to rise in the United States with many hospitals and physician practices progressing strongly towards meaningful use and the implementation of this system. Even with the growing rates of implementation, clinician...
ICD-10 Implementation Delay – Varied Responses from Providers
The healthcare industry’s response to the postponement of ICD-10 standard for medical diagnosis and billing codes to October 1, 2015 ranges from relief to resentment. While those healthcare providers who were not fully prepared for the radical format transition are...