AHA Approves Updated Hospital Billing, Collections Guidelines

AHA endorses updated patient billing, collection procedures

5 Tips For Increasing Self-Pay Patient Collections

More people in American have trouble paying medical bills: prognosis worse before better

Billing process linked to long-term patient satisfaction

Medical billing, a world of hurt: The most common errors, explained

Hospitals flout charity aid law

Survey: 41% of Consumers Lack Confidence in the Accuracy of Their Medical Bills

Survey: 21% of Patients Fully Satisfied With Hospital Billing Process

California Union Demands Hospitals Stop Price Gouging Consumers

Articles in category: Patient Friendly Billing

1. EMRs probed for over-billing Explore healthleadersmedia.com (Feb 15 2013) Patient Friendly Billing The Obama administration is forging ahead with a multi-billion dollar plan to shift from paper to electronic medical records, despite continuing concerns the program may be prompting some doctors and hospitals to improperly bill higher fees to Medicare. An investigation into those billing questions—which convened a hearing Wednesday—has yet to produce much in the way of results, and critics are questioning the seriousness of the efforts. Some digital records software marketed to medical professionals may be encouraging use of elevated billing codes that pay fatter fees, according to the nation’s top health information technology official. That could undermine cost savings the government expects to achieve by adopting the digital systems. (Read Full Article)

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2. Three Ways to Slash Your Medical Bills Explore FoxBusiness.com (Jul 10 2012) Patient Friendly Billing From making sure your bill is correct to negotiating prices ahead of time, there are ways to get as much as 40% off your medical bill. Here’s how. (Read Full Article)

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3. Patient Communications: The Value of Plain Language Explore Healthcare Technology News (Jul 6 2012) Patient Friendly Billing Do patients understand the aftercare instructions generated by your electronic health record, or the educational material you post on your Web site? If they don't, you're not only running afoul of regulatory demands for good communication, but also imperiling quality of care, which can hurt both patients and the bottom line. (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   Health Data Management

4. Insurers owe consumers more than $1B Explore Health Payer, Healthcare Payer, Payer (Jun 24 2012) Patient Friendly Billing The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has calculated that health insurance companies owe their consumers more than $1 billion dollars in rebates this year as a result of the medical-loss ratio requirement, The Washington Post reported. Almost 13 million Americans in both individual and group plans will receive rebates, with the average household receiving $151. "The big improvement here is a better value for the premium dollar," Mike Hash, interim director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, told the Post. "What this standard encourages issuers to do is be prudent in their administrative expenditures so the bulk of the premium dollar is going to pay for benefits." Article (Read Full Article)

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5. Survey: Actuaries Believe Health Care Costs Will Remain High Explore Insurance News Net (Jun 21 2012) Accountable Care Organizations , Cost Reduction , Patient Friendly Billing "Health care reform has always proceeded as a series of small steps. If [the ACA is] repealed, experiments like Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), bundled payments, consumer driven health and improved analytics, will continue. But, it will be up to the ... (Read Full Article)

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6. Consumer Reports tells patients how to comparison shop for care Explore American Medical Association (Jun 13 2012) Cost Reduction , Patient Friendly Billing The idea is to get physicians and others to reveal costs. (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   Healthcare Blue Book

7. What it means for payers to shift to a consumer-oriented market Explore Health Payer, Healthcare Payer, Payer (Jun 13 2012) Patient Friendly Billing One of the biggest changes facing the health insurance industry is the move to a business-to-consumer market, which requires payers operate within a more retail-oriented business. Given the enormity of that shift, Amercia's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has planned multiple sessions throughout its Institute 2012 to help payers learn the most effective strategies and determine what works best in their own organization. Richard Popiel, President of Horizon Healthcare Innovations, a subsidiary of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, will talk about how payers' efforts to better engage consumers has unintended consequences, including a shift in utilization of specialty services and an increase in claims. That's because consumers who are more engaged in their own healthcare will ask more questions, request care coordination more often and require additional health access points. Joining Popiel in this Thursday afternoon discussion are Andrea Gelzer, senior vice president at Amerihealth, and Amy Compton-Phillips, associate executive director of quality at the Permanente Federation.  Cigna Vice President John Young will discuss how the company has helped its members successfully create sustainable change during another Thursday afternoon session, "Strategies for Helping Consumer Make Prudent Decisions." And Neal Sofian, director of member engagement at Premera Blue Cross, will take on the topic of establishing and sustaining consumers' engagement in their own health. If you're ... (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   Horizon Healthcare Innovations   Richard Popiel

8. Limiting 'gross charges' on hospital bills Explore healthleadersmedia.com (Jun 11 2012) Patient Friendly Billing Robert D'Amicodatri had two strokes, complicated by seizures, and rang up $374,741 in charges at Crozer-Chester Medical Center early in 2009. Three years later, in February, the Delaware County hospital sued him for $241,321, the balance after an insurance policy paid $20,998 and the hospital reduced his bill by $112,422 for a reason it has declined to explain. D'Amicodatri's hospital bills mounted before the Affordable Care Act took effect began taking effect in 2010, but the landmark law has a provision now in effect designed to eliminate, for some uninsured or underinsured patients at least, jaw-dropping bills like D'Amicodatri's that are based on astronomical "gross charges." (Read Full Article)

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9. AHA endorses updated patient billing, collection procedures Explore Healthcare Finance News (Jun 6 2012) Feature Story , Collections , Debt Management , Improving Collections , Patient Friendly Billing , Point-of-Service Collections , Vendor Management Last week, a number of major national hospital organizations, such as the American Hospital Association (AHA), lent their support to the recently updated Statement of Principles and Guidelines on practices that hospitals should follow in regards to billing and collection, which incorporate patient-friendly billing practices. Election Feature Content:  No Feature read more (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   American Hospital Association

10. Insurers positioned to curb medical spending growth Explore Health Payer, Healthcare Payer, Payer (May 31 2012) Business Process Improvement , Cost Reduction , Employee Productivity , Patient Friendly Billing Health spending rates are only expected to increase a historical low 7.5 percent by 2013, and that growth is even lower--only 5.5 percent--when changes in insurance benefits, including higher deductibles and copays, are considered, according to an annual report released Thursday from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The 7.5 percent that PwC forecasted in its report contrasts with projections of a 2.4 percent growth in gross domestic product and a 2 percent increase in consumer prices in 2013, according to Reuters. This is also the fourth straight year in which the annual medical cost increase is less than 8 percent. "Four years of historically low growth is noteworthy, and we may be at the start of a new normal," Ceci Connolly, managing director of PwC's Health Research Institute, told Bloomberg. That's good news for insurers because it helps them reel in high medical costs. And because offering health plans with higher deductibles and copays and successful wellness programs tend to dissuade or prevent unnecessary purchases, insurers could help temper rising costs by incorporating these options into more of their plans. To capitalize on this lower medical cost trend, PwC said insurers should take a few key steps, including better aligning incentives and empowering consumers. "Health plans will have to educate consumers, build plan awareness, and distinguish themselves ... (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   PwC 's Health Research Institute   Ceci Connolly

11. CMS Identifies Recovery Auditor Findings Explore healthleadersmedia.com (May 31 2012) Improving Collections , Patient Friendly Billing , Vendor Management For the first time since it began publishing a quarterly Medicare compliance newsletter, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released official guidance on problematic billing errors. (Read Full Article)

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12. AHA Approves Updated Hospital Billing, Collections Guidelines Explore Becker's Hospital Review (May 30 2012) Collections , Debt Management , Improving Collections , Patient Friendly Billing , Point-of-Service Collections , Vendor Management In an effort to adapt to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and as a reminder that hospitals must address billing issues in a "timely, transparent and forthright manner," the American Hospital Association released updated guidelines (pdf) on hospital billing and collection practices. Under the PPACA, non-profit hospitals must conduct community needs assessments, clearly state financial aid policies and follow other billing procedures in order to keep their tax exemptions. The AHA ori (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   American Hospital Association

13. 14 Pros and Cons of Outsourcing ASC Billing Explore Becker's ASC Review (May 30 2012) Collections , Debt Management , Improving Collections , Patient Friendly Billing , Revenue Cycle , Vendor Management There are benefits and drawbacks to every decision ASC administrators make, including the decision about whether to outsource billing and collections. Here, industry experts discuss the pros and of outsourcing revenue cycle management. 1. Vendors are liable for coding mistakes. Surgery centers around the country are dealing with RAC audits, a new anxiety for many administrators. When auditors find a mistake, in-house billing departments are responsible (Read Full Article)

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14. HCAHPS Scores Show Wide Variation Explore healthleadersmedia.com (May 30 2012) Patient Friendly Billing , Quality Improvement , Scoring Hospitals attribute wide variations in patient responses to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers Systems survey to a number of factors, including hospital size and specialty, physical conditions within the hospital, and nurse-to-patient ratios. (Read Full Article)

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15. Carepayment offers compliance insights to hospitals Explore Healthcare Finance News (May 29 2012) Collections , Improving Collections , Patient Friendly Billing , Payment Models , Vendor Management Healthcare providers who offer extended payment terms to help patients meet rapidly increasing financial liabilities are exposing their organizations to a series of complex consumer credit compliance obligations due to increased regulations by federal and state agencies. Election Feature Content:  No Feature read more (Read Full Article)

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16. Many hospitals, doctors offer cash discount for medical bills Explore healthleadersmedia.com (May 29 2012) Patient Friendly Billing A Long Beach hospital charged Jo Ann Snyder $6,707 for a CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis after colon surgery. But because she had health insurance with Blue Shield of California, her share was much less: $2,336. Then Snyder tripped across one of the little-known secrets of healthcare: If she hadn't used her insurance, her bill would have been even lower, just $1,054. Unknown to most consumers, many hospitals and physicians offer steep discounts for cash-paying patients regardless of income. But there's a catch: Typically you can get the lowest price only if you don't use your health insurance. (Read Full Article)

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17. 3 Ways To Set Up Online Payment Systems For Patients Explore American Medical Association (May 28 2012) Business Process Improvement , Patient Friendly Billing , Payment Models Technically Speaking - A practical look at information technology issues and usage (Read Full Article)

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18. Why do Hospitals Charge $4,423 for $250 CT Scans? Blame Arizona Republicans Explore forbes.com (May 27 2012) Patient Friendly Billing One of the main criticisms of consumer-driven health care is that, today, consumers have no way of figuring out how much a particular health care service costs. Indeed, one of the reasons that health care is so expensive in America is because people have no idea what they’re paying for it. Hence, it’s important for reformers to encourage hospitals and doctors to become more transparent about the prices they charge for these services. But an Arizona bill to do just that was killed—by the state’s Republican legislature. (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Manhattan Institute for Policy Research

19. N.C. House Axes Charity Care Subsidy to UNC Hospitals in Proposed Budget Explore Becker's Hospital Review (May 25 2012) Cost Containment , Cost Reduction , Patient Friendly Billing A committee in the North Carolina House of Representatives has rejected Gov. Bev Perdue's proposed study to develop transparency in hospital billing and also cut a subsidy to University of North Carolina Hospitals from the state's proposed $20.9 billion budget, according to a News & Observer report. The governor had proposed giving the N.C. Institute of Medicine $100,000 to study hospital billing and develop more transparent policies. House Republicans dropped the proposal from the budget they r (Read Full Article)

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20. High deductibles, unexpected hospital bills produce sticker shock Explore healthleadersmedia.com (May 25 2012) Cost Reduction , Patient Friendly Billing Aileen Stalvey says she was "born to shop," but shopping for surgery left her with a bill from Baptist Hospital for more than twice the amount she’d been quoted.Her quandary is one that more will face as employers increasingly switch to high-deductible health plans—some of which require workers to spend as much as $5,000 before filing an insurance claim. These plans are intended to lower overall health spending by making consumers more cost-conscious, but experts say hospitals and physician practices have been slow to embrace the changes to make this paradigm work. (Read Full Article)

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21. How HR can Improve Patient Satisfaction and HCAHPS Scores Explore Executive Insight (May 24 2012) Patient Friendly Billing , Scoring Patient satisfaction already influences how healthcare consumers decide which hospitals they visit. Metrics like HCAHPS scores will also be used soon to adjust rates for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, penalizing hospitals with low patient satisfaction. Yet, there's a major resource that will improve patient satisfaction (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Hcahps

22. OIG probes physician Medicare billing for office visits Explore American Medical Association (May 24 2012) Improving Collections , Patient Friendly Billing , Vendor Management Federal investigators single out nearly 1,700 physicians for billing a relatively high number of costly evaluation and management codes. (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Marilyn Tavenner

23. Kentucky’s 1994 Health Reform Law Resulted in Higher Premiums, Fewer Choices for Consumers Explore AHIP Coverage (May 22 2012) Patient Friendly Billing Insurance market reforms enacted in the 1990s resulted in higher premiums and reduced access to coverage for Kentucky consumers, according to a case study released today by Healthcare Aware of Kentucky, a new, Louisville-based, health-care consumer-awareness group, and America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Continue reading → (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Ahip   Karen Ignagni

24. Consumer-directed health plans shown to be money-savers Explore American Medical Association (May 21 2012) Cost Reduction , Patient Friendly Billing However, researchers say a small part of that savings was patients electing not to pay for some preventive services. (Read Full Article)

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