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Anthem's new outpatient imaging policy likely to hit hospitals' bottom line
In what may be the first strike in a battle over what healthcare services should be provided in a hospital, Blues giant Anthem will no longer pay for MRIs and CT scans performed on an outpatient basis in hospitals across the country.
As healthcare costs continue to rise, Indianapolis-based Anthem, which is run by a former health system CEO, is taking aim at a service that can be far more expensive in a hospital than in a free-standing imaging center.
The service boosts hospitals' income, with some health systems collecting more than half of their profit from imaging services, according to Rich Bajner, a managing director at consultancy Navigant. So it's not surprising that hospital executives in the states affected by Anthem's policy are worried about their bottom lines being squeezed at a time when they are already dealing with lower patient volume and razor-thin margins.
Related news:
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Data Indicates Fentanyl Deaths Up 540% in 3 Years
The recent data is out. Now illicit fentanyl is responsible for almost 40% more deaths than heroin and even more than prescription opioids. It is so sad that methadone with the number of prescriptions at just 1% is contributing to as many as 20% of all deaths! It is also so sad, that the authorities are focusing more on prescription opioids and on the combination of opioids and benzodiazepines rather than the real villains here.
Amazingly, Kentucky has the second steepest increase in deaths with Maryland being number 1, and Delaware with number 3. Regarding recreational marijuana, the numbers coming out of Colorado and Washington seem to be maintaining the same level of deaths from 2015 to 2016 without significant increase.
The focus must be on illicit fentanyl!!! Let us not say any more that noone saw this problem coming. ASIPP has been talking about this issue since 2000 and worked hard toget NASPER passed NASPER 12 years ago as it was signed into law on Aug. 11, 2005 by President. So, we at ASIPP have seen it all and we have even predicted it.
The First Count of Fentanyl Deaths in 2016: Up 540% in Three Years
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The Same Agency That Runs Obamacare Is Using Taxpayer Money to Undermine It
Despite
several
failed
efforts
by Republican lawmakers to repeal it, the Affordable Care Act remains the law of the land. But the Department of Health and Human Services — an agency with a legal responsibility to administer the law — has used taxpayer dollars to oppose it.
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Healthcare sector continues steady march of job growth in August with 16,000 jobs added
Healthcare continues its even-paced march in job growth, adding roughly 16,000 jobs to the national economy in August, about the same number as it did in June and July, according to seasonally adjusted data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 156,000 in August, with job gains occurring in manufacturing, construction, professional and technical services, healthcare, and mining.
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Time Pressure Can Have Serious Consequences for Physicians and Patients
The practice of medicine is becoming increasingly challenging. Low insurance reimbursements, a shortage of primary care providers, and high numbers of patients have put a great strain on medical practices, and have caused some to enact internal policies which regulate how many patients a practitioner is supposed to see per hour. Such limitations can have ramifications…as we find in this month's case.
Dr P was a 33-year old general practitioner working for a fairly large walk-in family clinic. He had only been at the clinic for a few months, but was finding it greatly different than his previous employment in the office of an aging family practitioner. His previous employer was what some would call “old school” – he knew all his patients by name, always took the time to speak with them, never rushed, answered their phone calls personally, etc. But the physician had retired and sold his practice to the clinic, which offered Dr P a position.
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September 15-17, 2017: California
CASIPP 8th Annual Meeting
September 15-17, 2017 Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel
September: Michigan
The Michigan Society of Interventional Pain Physicians will meet Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017 at 11 am at Gilbert & Blake’s , 3554 Okemos Road, Okemos, MI.
Distinquished speakers will be Orlando Florete, MD, President of the Florida chapter and Shevin D. Pollydore, president of the Georgia chapter.
RSVP to liwan@javerypain.com
October 7, 2017: New York
The 2017 The Art and Science of Pain Management: A Clinical and Research Update will be Oct. 7, 2017 at The Gideon Putnam, 24 Gideon Putnam Road, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
The meeting is sponsored by Albany Medical College’s Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics and the Office of Continuing Medical Education and the Albany Medical Center Provider Unit for Continuing Nursing Education. Registration Deadline is October 2, 2017.
For information regarding the conference, contact the Office of Continuing Medical Education by phone at (518) 262-5828, fax at (518) 262-5679 or e-mail at
pricej@mail.amc.edu.
Send in your state society meeting news to Holly Long, hlong@asipp.org
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The NIPM-QCDR, a new offering from ASIPP®, is specifically tailored for interventional pain physicians. Your practice can use the NIPM-QCDR to fulfill the 2017 requirements of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).
- Meet CMS MIPS mandates for Quality and Improvement Activities
- Receive credit toward Advancing Care Information
- Report on specialty-specific measures developed by ASIPP
- Understand and adjust your 2017 performance to optimize future CMS reimbursement with real-time reports available on-demand
- Be better prepared for CMS quality reporting in future years when penalties and incentives get even larger
- Improve the quality of patient care in the specialty of interventional pain managementLearn more and get started with 2017 reporting by visiting ArborMetrix.com/NIPM-QCDR.
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