When practice revenues are flat-lining or even shrinking under the health care reform changes, the logical steps include reining in expenses and looking for new revenue streams. For many practices that have already trimmed expenses to the bone, opening an in-house pharmacy may be a practical solution for generating new revenues—and providing a genuinely useful service for their patients.
The low estimate on medical billing errors is $17 billion, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine. Even if the $29 billion they state as the top of the range is an overstatement, do you have your share of $17 billion to give back to patients and insurance companies? Furthermore, do you even want a part of the 250,000 patients who die each year because of medical errors (according to the medical journal BMJ) on your conscience?
The small and medium sized medical practice is finding its profit margin shrinking with every new compliance regulation and insurance readjustment. The opportunity to save money on the operations side may help grow a bottom line without having to levy new fees on patients or giving up office services. A group purchasing organization (GPO) leverages the power of numbers to lower prices for members without having to give up on the quality of the product.
The year 2017 marks one of the most significant year for Medicare changes in history as MACRA (Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act) takes full effect. This particular legislation includes the introduction of MIPS, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, which in turn impacts the management and reporting of performance measures throughout the medical community. If you don't fully understand the new MIPS penalty regulations work, you may not see how it's negatively impacting your bottom line until its too late.
Telemedicine billing can be a headache because a virtual visit isn't the same as an in-person visit, it has to be coded differently. This can lead to errors on claims and give insurance companies grounds to deny payment. In order to get compensation for telemedicine visits, billing departments should keep the following tips in mind when processing bills for payers.
