Healthcare Financial News

The vast majority of hospitals—97 percent—participating in HFMA’s most recent Healthcare Financial Pulse study reported an increase in self-pay receivables compared with the prior fiscal year. At more than one-third of these hospitals, the increase was 10 percent or greater. The study found that small hospitals were most likely to experience a self-pay increase of this magnitude.

The increase in self-pay receivables is a significant factor in hospital financial performance. Receivables are growing faster than patient revenue at almost one-third of hospitals that participated in the study.

To address these trends, more than seven in 10 respondents are devoting moderate or substantial efforts toward point-of-service collection. Many cite difficulty in estimating the cost of services as the most significant barrier to more extensive point-of-service collections.

View the Healthcare Financial Pulse study results.

The House of Representatives voted 243-183 to approve the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act (HR 3961), which would permanently revamp the Medicare physician payment formula.

In the absence of congressional action, physicians face a 21 percent payment cut in 2010 under the current system.
 
“Today’s House vote is the first step toward preventing this cut. The AMA urges the Senate to act quickly before the cut begins on Jan. 1,” American Medical Association President J. James Rohack, MD, said in a statement issued soon after the House action.

Earlier this month, the Senate failed to advance a bill averting the physician pay cut.

Combining the House healthcare reform bill with this Medicare physician payment change would raise the deficit by $89 billion over 10 years, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released today.