Client News Coverage

Revenue Integrity Trends To Support A Post-Pandemic Bounce-Back

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, March 21, 2023.

Healthcare organizations undoubtedly felt a sense of relief as 2022 faded in the distance, taking with it a devastating financial performance that resulted in negative profit margins for more than half of U.S. hospitals – the worst year hospitals have faced since the start of the pandemic, according to Kaufman Hall. Not only were operating margins down for most of 2022, but hospitals also struggled with higher labor costs in a more competitive market plagued by chronic clinical and administrative skill shortages.

Physician practices fared no better, with 90% saying that soaring expenses outpaced revenues last year, according to a survey by the Medical Group Management Association. Staffing and labor costs were cited most often as the source of rising costs. Other common culprits were lower reimbursement rates, significant increases in lab supply and drug costs, higher utility costs, lower patient volumes, and rising malpractice premiums.

Electronic Health Reporter»

EHR Association submits prior authorization comments to CMS

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, March 16, 2023.

On March 13, the HIMSS EHR Association submitted its comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on its Advancing Interoperability and Improving Prior Authorization Processes Proposed Rule.

Healthcare IT News»

Understanding how CAC Fills the Coding Void

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, March 13, 2023.

Over the years, computer-assisted coding (CAC) has proven its ability to boost revenue team productivity and accelerate critical decision-making while reducing denials, missed charges, and low-risk scores. CAC also increases coder productivity and code capture, and enables flexible and scalable coding to increase accuracy, efficiency, productivity, and flexibility.

Indeed, these benefits are why we are seeing a rapid uptick in adoption of CAC on the professional side of the healthcare house. Once reserved primarily for facility-based coding, today’s CAC solutions are stepping up to fill the void created by the chronic coder shortage that is impacting both facility and professional fee coding while helping to maximize the performance of any healthcare organization’s coding operations with improved throughput and quality – increasing coder productivity by 25%-45% and decreasing Discharged Not Finally Coded (DNFC) by between one and three days.

ICD10 Monitor»

AGS opens Philippines office

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, March 07, 2023.

Revenue cycle management company AGS Health opened an office in Manila, Philippines.

AGS said in a March 7 news release the expansion will support end-to-end accounts receivable services.

Becker's Hospital Review»

EHR Association urges CMS to extend comment period for prior authorization process

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, March 01, 2023.

The HIMSS EHR Association this week sent a letter asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to extend the comment period on its Advancing Interoperability and Improving Prior Authorization Processes proposed rule by at least 45 days.

Healthcare IT News»

The FDA plans to regulate far more AI tools as devices. The industry won’t go down without a fight

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, February 23, 2023.

Health tech companies are in a tizzy: After years of letting companies roll out software tools to guide patient care with little oversight, the Food and Drug Administration is taking a tougher stance.

In September, the FDA announced its intentions to regulate many of these AI-powered clinical decision support (CDS) tools as devices — which regulators say has always been their plan and within their purview. But the industry says it was blindsided by the move. In a fierce rebuttal, the Clinical Decision Support Coalition filed a petition earlier this month asking the FDA to withdraw the final CDS guidance, arguing regulators are overstepping their bounds by trying to police medical practice. They also claim the FDA’s move violates the 21st Century Cures Act, a 2016 law that says tools that “provide limited clinical decision support” don’t count as medical devices.

Stat News»

FutureRx Launches Healthcare Platform For Health Plans and PBMs

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, February 22, 2023.

FutureRx (FRx) announced today the launch of its first-of-a-kind healthcare platform for health plans and pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) that combines modular technology solutions and, if needed, seamless access to pre-vetted fully integrated service providers on a single platform. FRx is a cloud-based, modular, user-configurable technology platform that was built from the ground up to meet complex and continuously evolving compliance requirements in today’s Medicare and Medicaid environment. As such, it is 100% compliant with government-sponsored regulations out of the box.

Once on the platform, health plan and PBM users can select from a full range of technology modules – including Rx Prior Authorization, Appeals/Grievances, Part D Stars, Drug Management Programs (DMP) and more – that are preconfigured out of the box with workflow and letters, and fully integrated with SureScripts and CoverMyMeds, as well as fax, phone, email, and mail capabilities that eliminate costly and time-consuming implementations.

Electronic Health Reporter»

The Path Forward for Healthcare’s People Matching Problem

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, February 16, 2023.

Efforts to identify the right path forward for healthcare’s patient matching problem are gaining a foothold as stakeholders from across the spectrum come together to remove obstacles and implement effective solutions. Most notably, in 2022, efforts by industry organizations like Patient ID Now led to the temporary removal of Section 510 from the U.S. House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) appropriations bills. While it was ultimately reinserted in the final version, its initial removal by the Senate was the first time that chamber had done so in 20 years – a significant achievement in the fight to eliminate the outdated rider barring funding of research into a national patient identifier.

Meanwhile, the Office for the National Coordinator (ONC) through its Project US@ collaboration with standards development organizations and other stakeholders issued the

Healthcare IT Today»

5 Must-Have Features for AI Platforms in RCM

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, February 08, 2023.

A healthy, stable revenue cycle is crucial to every healthcare organization’s success. However, managing the revenue cycle takes experienced coders, complete documentation, and timely resolution of denials.

Administrative processes account for about 30% of U.S. healthcare costs, which means that all areas of a patient encounter, from check-in to billing and claims, are potential targets to obtain greater efficiency.

HIT Consultant»

EHRA questions rationale of added TEFCA security protocols

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, January 30, 2023.

In its comments to the ONC on the draft QHIN, Participant and Subparticipant Additional Requirements SOP, the EHR Association recommends workforce authentication requirements be applied only to the Qualified Health Information Network workforce, with specific consideration given to participants and sub-participants who are not HIPAA-covered entities.

WHY IT MATTERS

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is accepting comments on proposed requirements for QHINs, participants and sub-participants under its Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement developed by the enlisted Sequoia project.

Healthcare IT News»

Despite challenges ahead, ONC and industry more aligned than ever

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, January 18, 2023.

Industry groups and watchers have wide respect for the accomplishments over the past two decades of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

Despite concerns about achieving interoperability across the industry and sometimes overly optimistic expectations about the industry’s ability to manage change, there’s widespread appreciation for the amount of change accomplished by the federal office.

Health Data Management»

The rationale for changing the ‘all or nothing’ approach to USCDI certification

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, January 18, 2023.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has grown in its understanding, over time, about the breadth of technical capabilities and maturity of organizations that must implement regulations and technical requirements to achieve national goals.

This is not an easy process and ONC has shown a willingness to be open and learn about infrastructure capabilities across the healthcare ecosystem. This is particularly true in the pursuit of national interoperability, where a variety of health information technology (HIT) will be involved in the management and dissemination of all electronic health information.

Health Data Management»

Data governance, AI among the past year's analytics trends

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, January 17, 2023.

Data governance was one of the major trends that shaped analytics in 2022.

Data governance isn't glamorous like augmented intelligence, machine learning or natural language processing. It's the grunt work of analytics.

But after many organizations suddenly realized the importance of data-informed decision-making at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic -- and have continued to recognize its value as world events like the war in Ukraine and repeated supply chain disruptions have resulted in ongoing economic uncertainty -- data governance is starting to be a critical need.

TechTarget»

Oracle Cerner, Meditech execs to lead EHR Association

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, January 09, 2023.

Leaders from EHR vendors such as Oracle Cerner and Meditech were named to the Electronic Health Record Association's executive committee for 2023.

Becker's Health IT»

The Fight Over How to Deliver Bad News to Patients

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, January 09, 2023.

Congress was full of good intentions when it directed the Department of Health and Human Services to make sure patients get their test results as soon as they’re available.

But the implementation of that directive has set off a battle between doctors on one side and HHS and patient advocates on the other, and raised a fundamental question: How should patients get bad news? The debate underscores how medicine’s digital transformation is changing the doctor-patient relationship and upending ingrained practices.

Politico»