Studies have shown over and over that there are disparities in healthcare access and outcomes based on social determinants of health (SDOH) such as income and education level, environment, discrimination, and other factors. In recent years, we have seen attention turn to collecting information from patients regarding these factors and using them to help guide a patient’s care. In specialty settings, this is often seen as less important, and these factors are either not collected or dismissed as unimportant to patient care. This may all change in the near future, however, as CMS turns even more attention to the collection and use of these factors in patient care.

Back in mid-July, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the proposed rule for the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule. In this two-part blog series, we are going to take a look at some of the more notable changes in the 2022 MIPS proposed rule. In this first installment, we will be summarizing the proposed changes to the 2022 Quality Payment Program.

On July 19, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2022 proposed rule for the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS). These changes are meant to increase reimbursement rates for OPPS, implement increased penalties for price transparency violations and reverse changes to the inpatient-only list (among other things).

Being the boss of your own practice carries a lot of responsibilities. First and foremost, you are responsible for managing an entire staff, and that often requires you to conduct awkward, unpleasant or otherwise hard sorts of conversations.

Poor management of a practice’s collections can have a number of negative effects, including reduced or delayed revenue as well as owed balances spending too much time in Accounts Receivable. By implementing some simple training methods and best practices, however, your practice can improve collections management.

On June 11, 2021, CMS released updated 2021 quality benchmarks via email. This blog post will provide an overview of quality benchmarks, impact of recent changes and tips on how to optimize your quality reporting in 2021 despite the changes. Additionally, we will explain these updates as well as how they will affect your Quality Improvement process for 2021.

After years of bipartisan support, the shift toward greater price transparency in healthcare made a lot of headway starting in 2019 when then-President Trump signed an executive order that required hospitals and healthcare facilities to publish their prices more openly. The idea behind this was that having healthcare facilities publish pricing lists would encourage competition that would in turn lower overall care prices and costs for consumers.

Performing a regular security risk analysis (SRA) helps your practice stay HIPAA-compliant and protect patient data. A MIPS SRA also boosts your Merit-based Incentive Payment System score, leading to a higher chance of receiving a Medicare reimbursement at the end of the year.