Happy New Year from BHM Healthcare Solutions, Inc.
January 1, 2015
BHM would like to wish all of you a Happy and Safe New Year! Make 2015 the best year ever!
Author: BHM Marketing
Technology Creep is Making Healthcare More Expensive
December 31, 2014
Technology has streamlined and improved products and businesses alike, without equally increasing the cost for improvements. This is called Moore’s Law: the idea that technological innovation doubles every two years. Administrative duties can be accomplished much more quickly and inexpensively with software programs and business apps. Cars can operate more safely with rear video and voice-activated unlock systems, without paying triple the price for these new features.
Managed Care Organizations and Medicaid
December 30, 2014
A November 2014 audit from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) showed that as many states move from Medicaid to Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), access to a primary care physician involves some serious wait time. Because of these wait times, more and more Medicaid patients are filtering into healthcare systems through their emergency rooms, which impacts the continuum of care in a negative way.
Changes to Value-Based Purchasing Measures in 2015
December 29, 2014
If you need a quick refresher, Value-Based Purchasing is the incentive program that came along with the Affordable Care Act, which is hoping to help providers adjust to the move from fee-for-service models of pay to pay that is linked to quality rather than quantity of services. Under the VBP model providers and the organizations that they work for will be either docked Medicare payments for poor outcomes or awarded bonuses for striking a balance between high quality care and low cost. The hope is that VBP will inspire providers to become not just thriftier, but more innovative when it comes to providing care.
Changes to Reimbursement for Telepsychiatry
December 26, 2014
Back in 2013, Medicare proposed changes to its practices in reimbursement for telemedicine by adding seven new codes for this type of remote healthcare. These changes have been slowly making progress and put into action by practices and healthcare systems who are looking to increase their number of patient visits with the aid of technology and telehealth.
Happy Holidays 2014
December 25, 2014
Happy Holidays from all of us at BHM Healthcare Solutions!
We appreciate your support during 2014 and hope your Holiday season is happy, healthy, and safe.
Standardizing Patient Care with Clinical Pathways
December 24, 2014
Think of clinical pathways as maps: imagine a patient coming into the emergency room with abdominal pain. That’s a pretty non-specific complaint, and it could easily send an ER docs mind spinning with possibilities. With this common complaint the patient’s condition could run the gamut from a mild case of indigestion to a potentially fatal acute abdomen: and it’s up to the doctor to suss out what’s causing the patient’s pain before their condition worsens.
Top 3 Things that Defined Revenue Cycle Improvement 2014
December 23, 2014
2014 was another year big year for healthcare. As we continue to move toward a more patient-centered and transparent healthcare system, so too continue the changes to our payment models, insurance coverage and commitment to patient outcome measures. While there were many changes to keep track of, three things seem to have defined the progress made in the scope of revenue cycle improvement.
Managed Care – Not New but our Healthcare Perspective Might Be
December 18, 2014
Managed care has been around for almost one hundred years, at least in theory. When placed up against fee-for-service payment models, however, it was a hard sell. Traditionally, the way that physicians were compensated for their services was a fairly straight-forward invoicing process: they would bill the patient (or later, the payer) for everything they did in terms of diagnosing or treating the patient. Everything.
Hospital Readmissions Are Costing Us $26 Billion Annually
December 17, 2014
Healthcare has become something of a hard science, if the focus on data and numbers is any indication. It would seem that the research, the endless reporting and spreadsheets of healthcare administration, has served to at least shed light on the problems healthcare is currently facing as an industry – but the fix isn’t likely to be in black and white.