Nick Hut
About the Author
Nick Hut is a former newspaper reporter with more than a decade of experience at HFMA. His HFMA Daily reporting is considered a top benefit of membership as members have come to rely on Hut’s daily insights on policy, legal and business developments. He has been at the forefront of major industry news, garnering a following from national media. Nick has earned multiple national awards, including two first-place honors in 2024 from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for excellence in analysis and reporting.
Latest Work
Labor costs and other concerns dampen the outlook for not-for-profit hospitals this year
Insights from a leading credit-rating agency illustrate the scope of the financial challenges facing not-for-profit hospitals in 2023.
Medicare contractors should more closely examine providers’ bad debt claims, HHS watchdog says
Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) soon could apply more scrutiny to providers’ reported bad debts if CMS implements recommendations from the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG). OIG in December issued a report in which it examined bad-debt reimbursement claims on Medicare cost reports spanning 2016 through 2018 for 67 randomly selected providers (including 29 hospitals). In those…
For the No Surprises Act arbitration process, 2023 brings a steep fee hike and continuing litigation
The No Surprises Act’s independent dispute resolution (IDR) process is about to become more expensive for healthcare stakeholders. In 2023, the nonrefundable administrative fee due from each party involved in any payment dispute that goes to arbitration will increase from $50 to $350, according to a Dec. 23 memo from CMS’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance…
Massive federal spending bill alleviates reimbursement concerns for hospitals, but less so for physicians
Healthcare provider advocates applauded the inclusion of key reimbursement relief measures and other policies in a proposed federal spending bill for FY23, although physician groups expressed concern about the outlook for their constituents. With a divided Congress looking to muster the votes to pass the legislation before a self-imposed deadline of week’s end, the bill includes many…
The hospital labor picture could be improving, but a full financial recovery isn’t imminent
The financial and operational stress that has hampered hospitals may be easing in some ways, but probably not enough to qualify as a holiday gift for a beleaguered industry. Recent reports from credit-rating agencies have presented a mixed outlook. For example, Fitch Ratings released an analysis in December showing “incremental signs of improvement” in the staffing situation…
New federal rule aims to eventually ease prior authorization processes
CMS is seeking to improve the prior authorization process in government programs such as Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicaid, although the core provisions would not begin until 2026. The agency this week updated a Trump administration proposed rule with new proposals to “improve patient and provider access to health information and streamline processes related to prior authorization…
Reimbursement changes for 340B drugs reverberate in Medicare’s 2023 outpatient payment final rule
The Medicare payment rate for hospital outpatient services will increase significantly in 2023, but the net gain for the sector will be less than is apparent at first glance. Payment rates for hospital outpatient care and ambulatory surgical centers technically will increase by 3.8% over 2022 for facilities that meet quality-reporting requirements, CMS said in…
Bringing ESG principles to healthcare
Hospitals and health systems that don’t prioritize environmental sustainability arguably fail to do right by their communities, but more and more also may face a problem of greater short-term urgency. Namely, their access to capital could be constrained as the investor community looks to apply ESG principles to assessments of risks and opportunities. “I just…
Hospitals work to make the supply chain green
Even with all the challenges facing hospitals and health systems these days, the push to make operations more environmentally sustainable is becoming viewed less as a differentiator and more as an essential strategy. And for those organizations that have mastered energy conservation methods and made progress in greening their facilities and physical infrastructure, the supply…
HHS says the co-provider requirement for good-faith estimates is being tabled indefinitely
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has given hospitals and other healthcare providers a break on enforcement of a looming requirement for co-providers to be included on good-faith estimates (GFEs) furnished to uninsured patients. HHS announced in an updated FAQ that it will continue to exercise “enforcement discretion” instead of potentially penalizing providers starting Jan.…