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A Consultant, HIM Professional, and Vendor Weigh in on the Real CAC Impact By Mark Crawford for Journal of AHIMA HIM professionals have been looking for some truth and straight talk on computer-assisted coding (CAC). The technology has been billed as everything from the savior of coding-based bottom lines due to ICD-10-CM/PCS (ICD-10) to the…
By Kate Pickert for Time-Swampland The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is one of the most powerful institutions in Pennsylvania, employing some 55,000 people at more than 20 hospitals and 400 outpatient clinics. Like many powerful organizations, UPMC has detractors. The health care system is under fire from local labor organizers who want to…
By Kimberly Leonard for U.S. News & World Report U.S. News & World Report has released its seventh annual Best Children’s Hospitals rankings, a guide to the best care for children who face life-threatening, rare or demanding conditions or procedures. In the 2013-14 rankings, 87 different hospitals are listed among the top 50 in at…
Supply of skilled coders key to ICD-10 transition It’s all about numbers as hospitals, physician practices and health plans move forward with preparations to meet next year’s federally mandated switch from the current 36-year-old system of coding for diseases, diagnoses and clinical procedures to a new, more comprehensive standard. It’s not just the right code…
By John Tozzi for Bloomberg Businessweek Last year health insurance companies sent small businesses $321 million in rebates. In California, tens of millions more are on the way, according to the Los Angeles Times. The money comes from a little-known piece of Obamacare meant to keep premiums in check. In all the talk about death…
By Joseph Goedert for HealthData Management A new survey from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange on ICD-10 preparations-the seventh survey since late 2009-finds a disturbing lack of industry progress during the past year. WEDI in February 2013 surveyed 974 industry participants, comprising 87 vendors, 109 health plans and 778 providers, and compared results with…
By Dan Munro for Forbes I’ve recounted the story behind this headline before (here) but there’s a longer, more detailed version – and lesson. I attended a healthcare event last year that needs to remain nameless. It wasn’t a big event. In fact, it was very focused and relatively small. That’s about as much as we need to…
Julie Creswell, Barry Meier And Jo Craven Mcginty for The New York Times BAYONNE, N.J. — The most expensive hospital in America is not set amid the swaying palm trees of Beverly Hills or the luxury townhouses of New York’s Upper East Side. It is in a faded blue-collar town 11 miles from Midtown Manhattan.…
By Bob Herman for Becker’s Hospital Review Although primary care physicians bring in more net revenue to the average hospital, their compensation still lags behind those in several medical and surgical specialties. Last week, physician consulting firm Merritt Hawkins released its “2013 Physician Inpatient/Outpatient Revenue Survey.” Merritt Hawkins received responses from 102 hospital and health…
By Evan Steele, CEO SRSsoft on EMR Smart Talk A significant portion of the physician market has still not adopted an EHR, despite the lure of government incentives and the fear of the penalties looming on the horizon. The stock prices of most publicly traded ambulatory EHR companies are down sharply, as sales are lower…