Does the body always need antibiotics? Research indicates that the answer is “probably not”. But that does not stop the physician from prescribing antibiotics if the patient has a really bad flu or the uncomfortable common cold. They do so even if they know that it’s...
Discovery of New Genetic ‘Signature’ Offers Hope for Early Diagnosis of Tuberculosis in Children
Generally termed as an infectious disease, tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium called “Mycobacterium tuberculosis” that spreads through cough or sneeze droplets passed into the air from an infected person. This bacterium, when directly inhaled, multiplies in...
More U.S. Small Businesses Implementing Employee Health Coverage in 2014 Despite Rising Healthcare Costs, Says NFIB Survey
According to a survey conducted by the research foundation of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), 48 percent of small employers plan to offer employee health insurance in 2014 even as the healthcare costs rise to nearly 12 percent average for 2013...
ICD-10 Delay – Disappointing for Over 58% of Healthcare Organizations
Now that it is clear that ICD-10 implementation will be delayed by a year, it is important for providers to stay focused and make the best use of the time allowed. One of the first things that healthcare organizations need to do is to analyze and evaluate their...
Is Specificity with ICD-10 Codes a Boon or Bane for the Healthcare Industry?
If you refer to the ICD-10 manual, you will find that the 14,000 ICD-9 codes have exploded into around 68,000 ICD-10 codes. Though the increase in the number of medical codes is bound to make the medical coding process more accurate, some consider the specificity of...
IMS Health Study Reveals a Surge in U.S. Health Care Usage During 2013
The IMS Institute of Healthcare Informatics released a report in 2013 entitled 'Medicine Use and Shifting Costs of Healthcare: A Review of the Use of Medicines in the United States in 2013' that found an increase in the overall use of healthcare services by patients...
RAC Audits Put on Hold Temporarily
With a view to allow existing contracts with audit contractors to expire, the CMS has temporarily halted new RAC audit requests effective February 21st. The Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) currently under contract to CMS were directed to stop sending post-payment...
Be Prepared for a Private Payer Audit
Private payers often send notices to physician practices claiming that they have made an overpayment, and that physicians should remit the amount due to them within a certain deadline. Payers may carry out audits and send repayment requests when they think they have...
Shortage of Primary Care Physicians in Rural Areas
As per the 2011 ‘Montana Healthcare Workforce Statewide Strategic Plan’ released by the Montana Office of Rural Health, 11 counties had no primary care physicians (PCPs) and another 16 counties had five or fewer PCPs in 2010. We can see no change in this scenario...
“Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014” Comes as a Relief to Physicians
On April 1, 2014, President Barack Obama passed the legislation, Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 that enacts a 13-month temporary patch for the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula and delays the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 until October 1, 2015. The...