Healthcare Financial Management articles from April 2006

Healthcare Financial Management archives from April 2006

"60 minutes" segment describes how hospitals bill the uninsured; misses root cause, says Clarke.(The Uninsured/Underinsured)
April 1, 2006... The difficulty of paying for health care was the topic of a significant number of stories in different media at the beginning of March. Television tackled the apparent inequalities in hospital pricing. The March 5 broadcast of the CBS...

Taking care of their own.(retiree health plans)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... TAKING CARE OF THEIR OWN: Among the nation's 500 largest companies, 331 offer retiree health plans. About 7 million retirees are currently covered by employer-sponsored health plans, according to a new study by Credit Suisse First Boston.

CMS.(Healthcare Financial Management )
April 1, 2006... ... . CMS has updated the composite payment rates for end-stage renal disease. It adjusted the drug add-on percentage to account for the 1.6 percent increase in the composite payment rate to ensure that the total dollars allocated from the drug...

Bit by bit.(physicians use computerized provider order entry systems)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... BIT BY BIT: Some 3.2 percent of U.S. nongovernment hospitals said their physicians use computerized provider order entry systems to place at least half of orders, up from 2.5 percent the previous year, according to a survey by KLAS Enterprises,...

Researchers bicker over medical bankruptcies; health spending still predicted to grow.
April 1, 2006... A study by researchers at the Kellogg School of Management disputes a much-cited 2005 study by David Himmelstein et al., which contends that 54-5 percent of personal bankruptcies are caused by medical problems. The Kellogg study, published in...

Worst-case scenario.(flu pandemic)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... WORST-CASE SCENARIO: At its peak, a flu pandemic could affect 40 percent of the U.S. healthcare workforce while sickening an estimated 90 million Americans, federal officials said. About 10 million 0f those flu patients would require at least...

Federal register.(Medicare Law)
April 1, 2006... ... In a proposed rule (Federal Register, Feb. 10), CMS is extending the timeline for publication of the "Medicare Program Provider Bad Debt Payment" final rule. On Feb. 10, 2003, CMS published a proposed rule that would revise existing...

Say it isn't so.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... SAY IT ISN'T SO: U.S. healthcare spending grew 7.4 percent in 2005 to surpass $2 trillion and is expected to grow 7.3 percent in 2006, CMS said in an annual report. CMS predicted Medicare spending to exceed $790 billion in 2015, up from $309...

By 2011, pay-for-performance systems will be the norm, says new environmental assessment; some programs already showing promise.
April 1, 2006... Within the next five years, pay-for-performance systems will be commonplace, according to Futurescan: Healthcare Trends and Implications 2006-2011. Among the findings in this new environmental assessment, which studies major trends driving the...

If only it were so.(Health plans to the level of the best-performing plans)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... * IF ONLY IT WERE SO: Improving the performance of all health plans to the level of the best-performing plans would save between $2.8 billion and $4.2 billion in medical costs, avoid 83 million sick days, and increase productivity by $13.5...

Novel Arkansas program to expand coverage of uninsured adults.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced on March 7 that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services granted a waiver for a program that will allow hundreds of small businesses in Arkansas to offer health coverage to their employees. The...

Nearly half of States now have "pay or play" bills.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... In a move to require more employers to offer healthcare benefits to employees, 20 states had "pay or play" bills in committee at press time. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the term "pay or play" relates to states...

Active contrition.(Online survey by the American College of Physician Executives)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... ACTIVE CONTRITION: In an online survey of more than 1,000 physicians by the American College of Physician Executives, 80 percent of the respondents said providers should apologize to patients for medical errors; 61 percent said they believed...

Tennessee joins list of medical liability crisis states.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Tennessee is the latest to .join the American Medical Association's growing list of states "in crisis" due to a deteriorating medical liability climate that is jeopardizing patients' access to care. The AMA reported that Tennessee physicians...

5 states file lawsuit challenging clawback provision; California withdraws.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... On March 3, five states filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the "clawback" provision of the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. Under the provision, states must pay the federal government back for taking over the drug...

Young, rich, and they have HSAs?(Health savings accounts)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... YOUNG, RICH, AND THEY HAVE HSAs? In a January report analyzing the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program membership, the Government Accountability Office said the average age for FEHBP HSA enrollees was 46, compared with 59 for all...

HSAs will create more uninsured: study.(Health savings accounts)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Leading health economist Jonathan Gruber of MIT finds that the Bush administration's proposals to expand tax breaks for health savings accounts would cause a net increase in the number of uninsured Americans. The study, sponsored by the Center...

White House pressing hospitals to publish prices.(health plans to voluntarily publish their prices )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... President Bush encouraged hospitals and health plans to voluntarily publish their prices during a speech Feb. 15. However. he added, "There's always a bill out there in case the volunteerism is not quite as strong as it should be." The...

Too many Medicare Part D options, says CMS.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... In an effort to simplify Medicare Part D, CMS is asking insurers, employers, and other administrators of the drug program to respond to a proposal to limit each insurer to two Medicare Part D plans per region, instead of the typical three, and...

Hospital mergers result in price hikes and drops in quality: study.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... After a decade of large numbers of hospital mergers, 88 percent of residents in metropolitan areas now live in highly concentrated hospital markets. A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report that synthesizes research on the impact of those...

Beautiful bonsai.(John O'Hagan is captivated by bonsai)
April 1, 2006... John O'Hagan is captivated by bonsai. He lovingly cares for more than 70 of these little trees, some of which he's had for 40 years, in the backyard of his home. They sit in shallow trays on stands that are four feet high, the perfect...

For these paramedic students, STAN is the man.(Standard Man)
April 1, 2006... He blinks, he breathes, he speaks--and he can even die, if paramedic students don't respond with the appropriate medical care in time. STAN, short for "Standard Man," is a mannequin that can simulate illnesses and human responses to...

Site seeing.(Workflow management)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... When was the last time you visited www.hfma.org? You could be missing out on some of the latest additions to HFMA's web site, including: Real-World Applications of Revenue Cycle Process Mapping, a document that shows how three health...

20 years ago in hfm.(Prospective payment systems )
April 1, 2006... In April 1986, hfm's cover story "Capital Payment Under PPS: Can Hospitals Still Bloom?" discussed capital costs, which at that time were treated as pass-through payments under the prospective payment system. The article noted that later...

Prices that stick with you.(Medical product cost control)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Imagine sticking a visible price tag on every box of bandages, so nurses would know exactly how much each bandage costs the hospital--and would think twice about the number of bandages they use. Or placing price tags on packages of...

Striking a balance between looking forward and looking back.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Dear Editor, There is a fine line between leaning forward and falling over. Michael Freed, in his February 2006 hfm article entitled "Learning to Look Forward: Are You Looking Through the Windshield or the Rearview Mirror?" advocated...

Overheard.(Medical Economics)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... "First, states had to step in and spend millions to prevent the Medicare system from collapsing at the beginning of this year. Now, the federal government wants the states to act as its bill collectors." --Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.,...

Consumer-directed health care: it's coming: healthcare financial executives can have an impact.
April 1, 2006... In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins challenges us to confront the most brutal facts of our current reality, whatever they might be. The brutal facts are that we, as healthcare financial executives, will continue to face rising costs and...

Fred Lee: thinking like Disney.(Interview )(Interview)
April 1, 2006... Fred Lee has the unusual distinction of having been both a senior vice president of a major medical center and a east member at Disney University. At Disney, he helped develop and facilitate Disney's healthcare version of its four-day seminar,...

A lot like Columbo: the smiling, quizzical face of Columbo greets me whenever I put something in the in-tray of our magazine's layout artist.(FROM THE EDITOR)
April 1, 2006... Taped to the desk just beyond the in-tray is a three-inch stand-up illustration of everyone's favorite rumpled detective. I confess that I get a lot of comfort from that image. Pleasant Persistence Like so many others, I have been a...

P&P Board seeks comments on revised charity care/bad debt statement.
April 1, 2006... HFMA's Principles and Practices Board has released draft revisions to Statement No. 15, Valuation and Financial Statement Presentation of, Charity Service and Bad Debts by Institutional Healthcare Providers. To ensure that this statement...

HFMA names regional executives for 2006-07.(healthcare financial management association)
April 1, 2006... HFMA has announced the names of the 11 new regional executives who will serve one-year terms beginning June 1, 2006. These individuals, who have served as regional executive-select since June 2005, were elected by chapter presidents-elect...

The State of the Union speech and health care: health care was not a high-profile topic in President Bush's State of the Union address. Nonetheless, the president has significant plans for the nation's healthcare system.
April 1, 2006... This year, the president's State of the Union speech was heavily focused on two areas: national security and defense-related issues, and strategies to make the United States more competitive. If you weren't following closely, you might not have...

Going for the gold by turning 'green'.(construction of an eight-story, 192-bed tower)(leadership in energy and environmental design )
April 1, 2006... In early February, in the winter chill, a shovel was pushed into the ground on the 72-acre campus of Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill. That simple act was the first step toward the construction of an eight-story, 192-bed...

Controlling implant costs.(Economic Aspects)
April 1, 2006... Cardiac and orthopedic implants are arguably among the most important medical innovations of this era. They have allowed countless patients--particularly seniors--to continue to live healthy, active lives by reducing or eliminating pain and...

The case for an owner's representative.(Hospital building projects )
April 1, 2006... Most hospital building projects are complex, expensive, and risky. These projects require owners to make many decisions on issues that are beyond their expertise and not typically core to the hospital's mission. Some of the decisions will...

How clean are your bills?(Patient's bill should reflect a complete and accurate picture)
April 1, 2006... A patient's bill should reflect a complete and accurate picture of the patient's healthcare encounter. Sounds easy enough, right? In reality, though, hospital departments often run independently of one another, and a comparison of...

Finding the balance between quality and cost: what's the answer to improving the value of health care? One group believes hospitals could take a lesson from Japanese quality expert Noriaki Kano.(Cover story)
April 1, 2006... Total quality activity can begin only if top management is conscious of the critical need for companywide commitment to quality and its own responsibility for introducing such activity. --Noriaki Kano At a time when consumer demand for...

Eyes on the supplies: results of a massive performance improvement initiative: how much money can you save with a performance improvement initiative that focuses largely on supplies? More than you might think, if you follow the example of the University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics.
April 1, 2006... It's always a good idea to look for ways to reduce operating expenses and improve performance. But how many hospital CFOs expect to find a substantial share of their potential cost reductions in the area of supplies? That's what UUHC found when...

Revenue cycle outsourcing: the real costs and benefits: before outsourcing any revenue cycle functions, make sure you assess the real costs and benefits.
April 1, 2006... Cash flow is the lifeblood of any organization. For hospitals, a peak performing revenue cycle that achieves optimum revenue and cash flow, while delivering outstanding patient service, enables the organization to fulfill its mission of...

Easing the bottom-line impact of staffing shortages: a case study in shift bidding: are workforce shortages hurting your bottom line? Online shift scheduling and bidding sparked a transformation at Southern Regional Medical Center.(FEATURE STORY)
April 1, 2006... The healthcare workforce shortage is putting increased financial pressure on organizations already struggling with razor-thin margins, as costs continue to skyrocket for traditional options for filling open shifts: overtime, float pools, a...

The beginning: a good place to start for healthcare reform: too often, efforts to improve our healthcare system start at the end of the line--after patients already need expensive care and resources. How do we go about managing the true causes of our healthcare crises?
April 1, 2006... The United States is in the midst of a healthcare crisis, with many solutions being promoted but little consensus about which solutions will work. Much of the debate focuses on how to improve the system. However, it may help to first consider...

Margin alert: time to revisit your outpatient strategy: are you prepared for a drop in managed care outpatient payment rates? The competition is heating up, and that may drive your profit margins down.
April 1, 2006... The current decline in managed care margins from outpatient services is a disturbing trend for the nation's acute care hospitals. This trend poses a serious challenge for those hospitals that have relied on increasing outpatient payment levels...

Financial A/R policy: preservice and time-of-service processing.
April 1, 2006... The workflow shown on the next page depicts the administrative policy that defines preservice and time-of-service access processing requirements. Using this workflow as a guide, management develops and implements an administrative financial...

Poor management can look like discrimination: discrimination or poor management? Don't leave it up to the courts to decide.(LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT)
April 1, 2006... Charges of discrimination related to the slow federal response time during Hurricane Katrina reminded us of an old issue: what poor management can look like to those we serve, be they patients or employees. It seems to us that poor management...

What is IT architecture? IT staff often use the word architecture in their speech and presentations. Client-server architecture, Web architecture, Database architecture.(Information Technology)
April 1, 2006... Those who are listening may dismiss this term as another piece of jargon used by IT people that seems to obscure rather than illuminate the discussion. Yet while there are many IT terms that you can ignore, architecture is not one of them. ...

Why oncology business development? Cancer casts a huge shadow over the American citizenry and is a large part of the U.S. healthcare economy.(NEW REVENUE GROWTH)
April 1, 2006... It also may be the most complex of the clinical areas typically targeted by centers of excellence because there are so many different types of cancers, all with their own diagnostic and treatment protocols. Although the modalities of cancer...

Calendar.(Healthcare Financial Management )(Table)(Calendar)
April 1, 2006... CALENDAR Spring 2006 Seminars Level Seminar May 2-5 May 22-25 April 24-27 Kansas Savannah, Financial Management Minneapolis City, Mo. Ga....

Diana L. DeMarlie (McMahon-Illini Chapter).(PEOPLE)(joined Accelerated Receivables Management, Ltd)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Ms. DeMarlie has joined Accelerated Receivables Management, Ltd., Park Ridge, Ill., as director of business development. Previously, she was director of healthcare development, Array Services Group, Sauk Rapids, Minn.

Toby Freier, CFHFP (Winconsin Chapter).(appointed in New Ulm Medical Center)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Mr. Freier has joined New Ulm Medical Center, New Ulm, Minn., as director of operations and finance. He had been CFO, Tomah Memorial Hospital, Tomah, Wis.

John Katsianis, CPA (Greater St. Louis Chapter).(Appointed in Christian Hospital)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Mr. Katsianis has been named vice president, finance, and CFO, Christian Hospital, BJC HealthCare, St. Louis. Formerly, he was vice president and CFO, CARITAS Health Services, Louisville, Ky.

David Laird, CPA (Lone Star Chapter).(PEOPLE)
April 1, 2006... Mr. Laird has been named president and CEO, Heart Hospital of Austin, Texas. Previously, he was regional CFO, MedCath, Inc, Charlotte, N.C.

Ronald D. Finkelstein, CPA (Florida Chapter).(Argiz & Farra, LLP)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Mr. Finkelstein, partner, Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was recently awarded the Excellence in Accounting award in the healthcare category. The award, which acknowledges distinction in the field of accounting...

Timothy Maurice FHFMA, CPA (Washington/Alaska Chapter).(Appointed in St. John's Regional Medical Center)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Mr. Maurice has been appointed vice president and CFO, St. John's Regional Medical Center, Oxnard, Calif. He had been CFO, Good Samaritan Community Healthcare, Puyallup, Wash.

Marc A. Proto, FHFMA (Rhode Island Chapter).(Appointed in Landmark Medical Center)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Mr. Proto has joined Landmark Medical Center, Woonsocket, R.I., as director of revenue cycle. Formerly, he was manager, revenue enhancement, St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island, Providence, R.I.

Samuel Thrower, FACHE (Georgia Chapter).(PEOPLE)
April 1, 2006... Mr. Thrower has joined The Coker Group, Alpharetta, Ga., as principal. Previously, he was vice president, operations, Integra Solutions, Per-Se Technologies, Norcross, Ga.

Bradley Beekman (Wisconsin Chapter).(PEOPLE)
April 1, 2006... Mr. Beckman has been named supervisor, health information services, St. John's Mercy Medical Center, St. Louis.

Theresa Larivee (Metropolitan Philadelphia Chapter).(Appointed in Chase Cancer Center)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Ms. Larivee has been appointed vice president of finance and CFO, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia. Previously, she was deputy vice president and associate dean of budget and finance, Columbia University Medical Center, New York.

Northeast shows higher-than-average Medicare allowances for hospital admissions.
April 1, 2006... An analysis of Medicare inpatient hospital admissions over three years for short-term, acute care hospitals discloses that payment amounts in the Northeast region of the country (comprising Conn., Mass., Maine, N.J., N.H., N.Y., Penn., R.I.,...

What is price transparency? Politicians, policy wonks, economists, and consumer advocacy groups are beating the drum of price transparency in health care.
April 1, 2006... But achieving meaningful transparency is not just a matter of replacing the walls of the business office with glass. In a consumer-directed healthcare system, consumers have more financial stake in their care decisions. And to make an...