Healthcare Financial Management articles from July 2006

Healthcare Financial Management archives from July 2006

States are requiring hospital price disclosure.
July 1, 2006... Under pressure from the Bush administration, states are stepping up to the plate in terms of making their hospitals' prices transparent. President Bush has urged hospitals and insurers to voluntarily make price and quality information available...

Some good news--sort of.(Consumer spending on health care)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... SOME GOOD NEWS--SORT OF: The top 1% of consumers of health care accounted for 22% of U.S. healthcare dollars spent in 2002, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. At least that's better than in 1996, when the top 1%...

Patient Friendly Billing[R] releases consumerism in health care report.
July 1, 2006... PATIENT FRIENDLY BILLING[R], a national project to make healthcare billing clearer to patients, has released Consumerism in Health Care, a report that addresses the important issue of price transparency. A key assertion of the report is that...

CMS.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... ... Effective July 3, payment to hospitals for colorectal cancer screening for nonpatients on bill type 14X will be based on the clinical diagnosis laboratory fee schedule. However, all colorectal cancer screenings billed on TOB 13X for all...

And definitely some bad news.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... AND DEFINITELY SOME BAD NEWS: Of 18- to 29-years-olds, 14% are obese, said the Commonwealth Fund. In the 1990s, obesity increased by 70 percent in this age group--the fastest rate of increase among all adults.

United States health insurance coverage of the nonelderly by citizenship, 2003.(Table)
July 1, 2006... United States Health Insurance Coverage of the Nonelderly by Citizenship, 2003 Nonelderly by Citizenship Native Naturalized Citizens Citizens Non-Citizens...

Federal register.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... ... CMS has issued a proposed rule (Federal Register, May 26) designed to improve the accuracy of payments under the ambulance fee schedule and incorporate changes in geographic adjustments based on the most recent census data. The proposed...

Further comment would be superfluous.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... FURTHER COMMENT WOULD BE SUPERFLUOUS: Diabetes is the only major disease with a still-increasing death rate-up 22% since 1990, according to The New York Times. It is also the leading cause of kidney failure, blindness, and nontraumatic...

HHS: Medicare Part D enrollment exceeds 38 million.(Department of Health and Human Services)
July 1, 2006... More than 38.2 million people with Medicare--90 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries--are now receiving comprehensive prescription drug coverage, according to a June 14 progress report on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit prepared by Mike...

Welcome, freshmen! May we see your insurance cards?(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... WELCOME, FRESHMEN! MAY WE SEE YOUR INSURANCE CARDS?: According to the Commonwealth Fund, about 25% of public universities and about 90% of private universities and colleges require that students have health insurance in order to enroll. And...

New Hampshire web site called first step toward price disclosure.(New Hampshire Hospital Association )(Website overview)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... The New Hampshire Hospital Association has launched its web site for public posting of its state's hospital charges for inpatient services. The web site, www.nhpricepoint.org, which was developed in partnership with the Wisconsin Hospital...

South Dakota hospital pricing web site posts first year of data.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... South Dakota's hospital pricing web site, hospital-pricing.sd.gov, has posted its first full year of data, a state health official announced on June 2. The web site posts median prices for each hospital's 25 most commonly performed inpatient...

Missouri hospitals post amounts of uncompensated care on Web site.(Website overview)
July 1, 2006... The Missouri Hospital Association has posted online dollar amounts for each Missouri hospital in the following categories: uncompensated care costs (charity care and bad debt), unpaid costs of Medicare program beneficiaries, unpaid costs of...

Half is better than none.(Information Technology in Hospitals)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... HALF IS BETTER THAN NONE: Small hospitals without national accreditation have adopted IT systems at about half the rate of large facilities, according to a CMS survey of senior hospital executives. For example, 98% of large, JCAHO-accredited...

CMS begins posting hospital payment information.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... In the first of a series of steps to make healthcare costs and quality more transparent, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began posting information June 1 on what Medicare pays for 30 common elective procedures and other hospital...

Thomas presses CMS to make Medicare changes for FY07.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Bill Thomas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, on May 30 urged CMS to proceed with the Medicare changes proposed for FY07 that will more accurately reflect patient severity, costs, and payments across different types of cases. He...

Grassley urges IRS to curb abuses by tax-exempt entities.(Internal Revenue Service)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has asked the IRS chief counsel to monitor and update the IRS guidance to tax-exempt organizations--specifically tax- exempt hospitals--with particular attention to the...

Most HIPAA violations dismissed.(Health Information Portability & Accountability Act )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Despite the 19,420 complaints of alleged HIPAA violations Americans have filed, the government has issued no civil fines and has prosecuted only two criminal cases, according to The Washington Post. The government has closed more than 73% of...

Capping drug benefits leads to poorer health, higher costs: study.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Capping prescription drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries resulted in a 28% lower pharmacy cost, but the savings were offset by higher hospital and emergency department costs, according to a study published in The New England Journal of...

Pictures worth 1,000 words.(Member Spotlight)
July 1, 2006... Trudy Land expresses her love of health care through paintings that celebrate the human spirit. While painting, Trudy Land experiences a joy that comes from deep within. "When I'm painting, my mind is totally away from everything...

Personality test reduces turnover--and saves hospital dollars.
July 1, 2006... Looking for a way to reduce employee turnover and decrease workers' compensation claims? One hospital has saved more than $93,000 by having prospective hires take a workplace personality survey during the interview process. St. Mary...

Managers can create a healthy workplace.(20 Years Ago in hfm)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... hfm's July 1986 cover story, "Working Well: A Healthy Employee Means a Wealthy Organization," discussed ways that a manager can affect an employee's wellness in the workplace. "Wellness means both physical health and mental stamina," author...

Overheard.(ETCETERA)
July 1, 2006... "I don't know of any Democrat who thinks this is working the way it should. You betcha this is going to be an issue." --Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., on Democrats politicizing Medicare Part D "(The proposed rule change) is another way...

Timely payment: how does your insurance company rate?(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... How well do the nation's seven biggest insurers pay their bills? Not well enough, according to a recent survey. Athenahealth, a health IT company founded by Jonathan Bush, first cousin of President George W. Bush, collected data from 7,000...

FY07 inpatient PPS proposed rule--presentation.(Prospective payment systems )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... This presentation covers the major changes to the proposed inpatient PPS rule published in the Federal Register, Feb. 12, 2006, including the proposal to establish a new methodology for the weighting of DRGs from a charge-based system to one...

HFMA highlights: inpatient hospital PPS proposed rule for FY07.(Prospective payment system )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... On April 12, 2006, CMS issued a proposed rule that could make the most significant revisions to the inpatient prospective payment system since its implementation in 1983. The rule would base DRG weights on hospital costs rather than charges in...

Tackling the issues courageously: consumer-directed health care is going to change the way we do business in health care.(Healthcare Financial Management Association)
July 1, 2006... The federal government and the market are both pushing high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts. Some believe as I do that the tipping point toward widespread adoption of these plans has already occurred. These create huge...

Nick Jacobs: a right-brained ceo.(Chief Executive Officer)(Interview)
July 1, 2006... Nick Jacobs, FACHE, is president of Windber Medical Center and the Windber Research Institute, both located in Windber, Penn. He cofounded the institute, an international research center for heart and reproductive diseases. Previously, he held...

Drawing a straight line without a straightedge: a graphic designer once told me how to draw a straight line freehand.(Editorial)
July 1, 2006... He said you make a point where you want the line to end, then go to where you want the line to start and draw toward that point, never looking at where you actually are drawing, just keeping your eye on the point in the distance. Well, I tried...

Capital planning: how strategic is your organization?
July 1, 2006... Effective capital planning is increasingly important for providers as they face tighter access to shrinking sources of capital. At the same, they struggle with aging facilities, intensifying regulatory pressures, and ever-changing technology...

HFMA launches new communities of practice.(Healthcare Financial Management Association)
July 1, 2006... HFMA debuted its first Community of Practice at ANI 2006 in Orlando, when the Future Leaders CoP was unveiled. HFMA's CoPs will provide online interaction tools designed to facilitate discussion and information sharing among our members....

HFMA e-learning meets hospitals' needs.(Healthcare Financial Management Association)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... It's been called distance learning, computer-based training, web-based training, and most recently, simply e-learning. E-learning can take a variety of forms, but each form offers the same advantages: content that can be updated quickly,...

Buzzword of the year: "transparency": OK, readers, take note: the healthcare buzzword for the rest of this year is transparency.
July 1, 2006... Transparency in both quality reporting and pricing for healthcare services may well be the key to the success, or failure, of President Bush's effort to make affordable health care available to more Americans. Without it, consumer-directed...

Managing the ice in the waters ahead lessons from the Titanic.(MANAGED CARE)(Column)
July 1, 2006... When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experience in nearly 40 years at sea, I merely say, "uneventful" Of course there have been winter gales, and storms and fog and the like. But in all my experience, I have never been in any accident...

The implications of reimbursement changes for specialty hospitals.
July 1, 2006... Specialty hospitals are not a new phenomenon. Hospitals that focus specifically on care for women, children, cancer, rehabilitation, and long-term healthcare needs, among other types of specialty hospitals, have been part of the American...

Looking out the window market intelligence for a view of the real world: if you are not using market intelligence data to analyze your organization's performance, you may be missing out on some great opportunities to develop product lines.
July 1, 2006... "Financial measures are lag indicators that report on the outcomes from past actions. Exclusive reliance on financial indicators could promote behavior that sacrifices long-term value creation for short-term performance." --Robert S....

Knowing the SCOR: using business metrics to gain measurable improvements: applying leading practices long used by other industries may help your hospital gain a competitive edge while improving its financial performance.
July 1, 2006... How is it possible for a hospital or healthcare system to remain competitive and improve the bottom line in today's market? It's achievable through clear articulation of a "go to market" strategy and the exhaustive pursuit of actual unit costs...

Keys to a high-performance health system for the United States: we can greatly improve the performance of the U.S. healthcare system, but first we need to reexamine some of our long-held notions.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... We are beginning to recognize that the U.S. health system has serious performance problems. It is possible to greatly improve our system's performance, despite some obstacles. In June 2005, The Commonwealth Fund announced the formation of a...

Getting your game on with business data: a strategy for capturing and analyzing business data has the potential to reduce denied claims and increase revenue.
July 1, 2006... When providers file claims with payers, the rules of the game are "Two strikes and you're out." Hospitals and physicians have two opportunities to obtain full or partial payment: on "first pass," or initial submission, and afterward, when the...

Consumer-directed health care what to expect and what to do: consumer-directed health care is here, and CFOs can be the change leaders for their organizations.
July 1, 2006... In just a few years, consumer-directed health care has moved from the shadows of healthcare policy to the center stage of healthcare reform. Employers, the purchasers of health insurance for most working Americans, are rapidly moving toward...

Determining the financial impact of hospice.
July 1, 2006... Over the years, research has repeatedly affirmed the value of hospice in meeting the end-of-life care needs of terminally ill patients and their families. Hospice has been proven to provide exceptional pain management while alleviating...

Selecting and retaining talent: tools for the bottom line: it's not easy to add $1.3 million to a bottom line these days. Or is it?
July 1, 2006... I think of reducing employee turnover as the "low-hanging fruit" when it comes to easy ways to dramatically cut costs. High turnover not only represents lost dollars, but when you retain more employees, you also improve employee morale,...

IT proposals competing for attention? Learn how to prioritize: there will always be more demand for IT projects than an organization can afford or manage.(Information technology)
July 1, 2006... As a result, organizations need to make decisions between competing proposals for IT resources: "Which projects will we fund, and why? And what steps can our organization take to ensure that the prioritization of IT projects is as thoughtful...

Beach pondering for CFOs: if I'm reading my editorial calendar correctly, this issue is arriving as you are most likely leaving for summer vacation and, I hope, the beach.(NEW REVENUE GROWTH)(chief financial officers)(Column)
July 1, 2006... In consideration of my readers, I'm departing from the usual "10 things you need to do" to something a little different. This column focuses on "pondering." After all, when you are at the beach with friends and family, do you really want a...

No longer your mother's muni market: time was when municipal finance was a fairly simple proposition. An issuer--a municipality--had a need to borrow, and an investor had a need for relief from the burdens of taxation.(CAPITAL FINANCE)
July 1, 2006... Due to the special status afforded municipalities under the Constitution, interest paid on the debt created by the transaction was beyond the reach of the IRS. For the municipality, this translated into a lower cost of capital funding. For the...

Calendar.(Calendar)
July 1, 2006... NATIONAL August 14-17 Six seminars are offered in Coeur d'Alene Fall Seminars covering the topic areas of financial Coeur d'Alene, Idaho management, revenue cycle, managed care operations...

Michael Dordick (Metropolitan Philadelphia Chapter).(PEOPLE)
July 1, 2006... Mr. Dordick has been promoted from senior director to vice president and principal, McBee Associates, Inc., Wayne, Pa.

Beverly Slate (Tennessee Chapter).(PEOPLE)
July 1, 2006... Ms. Slate has been promoted from regional director, QMRG, Richmond, Va., to associate vice president, QMRG, Brentwood, Tenn.

Bruce Halloway (Virginia Chapter).(PEOPLE)
July 1, 2006... Mr. Halloway has been promoted from partner to national director of healthcare revenue cycle management services, Computer Sciences Corporation, Falls Church, Va.

Cheryl L. Matejka, CPA (Greater St. Louis Chapter).(Appointed in St. John's Mercy Medical Center)(Certified public accountant)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Ms. Matejka has been appointed vice president, finance, St. John's Mercy Medical Center, St. Louis. Previously, she was vice president, financial operations and analysis, BJC HealthCare, St. Louis.

James Myers (Washington/Alaska Chapter).(Appointed in Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Mr. Myers has joined Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, as business director, psycho-social services. He had been project director, organizational strategic planning, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle.

Julio Perez (Texas Gulf Coast Chapter).(PEOPLE)
July 1, 2006... Mr. Perez has been promoted from admissions supervisor to admissions/business office manager, Memorial Medical Center, Livingston, Texas.

Alan Gustafson (Nebraska Chapter).(PEOPLE)
July 1, 2006... Mr. Gustafson has joined Per-Se Technologies, Gering, Neb., as sales director, hospital services. Previously, he was director of business development, ARS/Magnet Solutions, Scottsbluff, Neb.

Jonathan C. Smith (North Carolina Chapter).(PEOPLE)
July 1, 2006... Mr. Smith has been promoted from controller and MIS director to CFO, Spruce Pine Community Hospital, Spruce Pine, N.C.

Krystal R. Claymore (North Dakota Chapter).(Appointed in St. Joseph's Hospital and Health Center)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Ms. Claymore has been appointed CFO, St. Joseph's Hospital and Health Center, Dickinson, N.D. She had been controller/director of fiscal services, Thomason Hospital, El Paso, Texas.

Deborah Halverson (San Diego-Imperial Chapter).(Appointed in Sequetor, Inc)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Ms. Halverson has been named chief principal officer, Sequetor, Inc., Costa Mesa, Calif. Formerly, she was executive vice president, chief revenue officer, RevCare, Inc., Cypress, Calif.

Scott McBride (Texas Gulf Coast Chapter).(PEOPLE)
July 1, 2006... Mr. McBride has joined Baker & Hostetler, as partner, in Houston. He had been an attorney with Vinson & Elkins, Houston.

Matthew Morgan (Northern California Chapter).(PEOPLE)
July 1, 2006... Mr. Morgan has been named director, finance, CHOMP, Monterey Peninsula, Calif. Formerly, he was manager, finance, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.

Keri Morrione (Massachusetts Chapter).(PEOPLE)
July 1, 2006... Ms. Morrione has been appointed manager, revenue contract management, Partners HealthCare System, Charlestown, Mass. Previously, she was supervisor, data analytics, Winchester Hospital, Winchester, Mass.

Diane S. Roberts, FHFMA (Northeastern Pennsylvania Chapter).(Fellow of the Healthcare Financial Management Association )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Ms. Roberts has been named financial liaison, patient care services, Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center and Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre Medical Center, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. She had been corporate director, materials management, Blue Mountain...

David Rodriguez (New Jersey Chapter).(Appointed in Bayonne Medical Center)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Mr. Rodriguez has joined Bayonne Medical Center, Bayonne, N.J., as director, patient financial services. He had been director of patient accounts, Palisades Medical Center, North Bergen, N.J.

ICU stays having a significant impact on hospital margins.(Intensive care units)
July 1, 2006... The number of Medicare patients requiring admission to intensive care units in short-term, acute care hospitals increased 8.4 percent over 2002-04, according to data on inpatient admissions processed for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...

Managing the storm: the challenges facing us are daunting.(FROM THE PRESIDENT)(Healthcare Financial Management Association )
July 1, 2006... Federal and state payments to providers are likely to come under increasing fire as government struggles to balance priorities and budgets. The resultant "cost shift" to employers and other private payers is causing them to negotiate harder...