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Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

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  • National summit looks at overuse of treatments

    More than 200 people gathered in late September to discuss the problem of doing too much for patients. Physicians from the American Medical Association's Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) and The Joint Commission (TJC) held the symposium on overuse of five treatments or procedures:
  • Make it a top priority: single service changes

    For one month, patient access leaders at Witham Health Services in Lebanon, IN, targeted one simple but important change to improve the level of customer service given by registrars.
  • ED revenue doubles with new process

    Emergency department (ED) collections jumped from $55,000 to $120,000 annually after eligibility software was implemented at Mary Rutan Hospital in Bellefontaine, OH, reports John E. Kivimaki, director of patient accounts.
  • Asked about costs? Give first-rate service

    While many patient access departments can give patients the estimated full cost of a service, to date, very few are able to provide an accurate out-of-pocket estimate, says Becky Peters, regional director of patient access services for Sutter Health West Bay in San Francisco.
  • Survey: Hospitals name least favorite insurers

    It is a truth universally acknowledged that health insurance companies can be a pain for patients. What may be a surprise is that hospitals often complain, too, for the same reasons: denied claims, low reimbursement, late reimbursement, and thickets of red tape.
  • Revenue captured increases $1.5 million

    Annual revenue collected for Medicaid patients has doubled at Trinity Regional Health System in Rock Island, IL, since January 2010, since the screening process is now done internally instead of by a contracted company.
  • Getting aggressive with collection of ED copays? Don’t violate EMTALA

    You might assume that registrars giving emergency department (ED) patients the impression that they are required to pay money to receive treatment is a thing of the distant past, as this situation is a likely violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) which has been in place since 1986.
  • Which patients are Medicaid-eligible?

    Identifying Medicaid-eligible patients is a top priority for patient access staff at The University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, reports Stephen Hovan, vice president of the revenue cycle.
  • State Medicaid expansions show several benefits

    In a study recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine,1 state Medicaid expansions to cover low-income adults were significantly associated with several benefits, including reduced mortality and improved coverage, access to care, and health, as self-reported.
  • Be very clear: It’s just an estimate

    When patients call and ask what a test costs, the information isnt always straightforward, says Robin Woodward, CHAM, patient access director at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, VA.