PFC USA’s partnership approach ensures healthcare clients tackle regulatory and patient satisfaction issues
Review some tips from a company with 6.5 years of hands-on experience in helping its healthcare clients handle concerns in healthcare such as workforce shortages and a volatile regulatory environment.
Money received through the Provider Relief Fund could be at risk as audits ramp up
Recipients of Provider Relief Fund (PRF) distributions and COVID-19 Uninsured Program payments should be girding themselves for audits, legal experts say. The programs represent “a two-front audit fight that providers are facing and will face in the coming years,” Brian Lee, partner with Alston & Bird, said during an Aug. 24 webinar hosted by the…
The evolution of telehealth and the potential for sustainability
The surge in use of telehealth services seen during the pandemic has slowed, but telehealth remains a key modality amid policy changes that will help set the course for the future of virtual care. “There’s no alternative,” said Kyle Zebley, senior vice president for public policy with the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and executive director…
Key questions for providers after more than 2 years of the price transparency rule
Effective Jan. 1, 2021, under CMS’s final outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) final rule for CY2020, hospitals nationwide were required to publish their negotiated rates, chargemaster prices and drug prices for all items and services in a machine-readable file (MRF) and generate a more user-friendly consumer display showing pricing information for 300 shoppable items and…
Data indicate hospital operational logjams haven’t ceased after the public health emergency (updated)
Note: The fourth section of this article has been updated with news of proposed mandatory staffing ratios for long-term care facilities. Some of the problems that strained hospital operations during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic have eased, but not enough to mark a true industrywide recovery, a recently released report suggests. Notably, the process…
Congress puts the community benefit standard for nonprofit hospitals under the microscope
The criteria that establish hospitals’ tax-exempt status are coming under closer scrutiny, with a bipartisan quartet of senators asking the IRS to ramp up its oversight of compliance with the community benefit standard. Sens. Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent an Aug. 7 letter to the…
FTC and HHS’s Office for Civil Rights put healthcare stakeholders on notice about the use of tracking technology
Federal regulators plan to more rigorously monitor whether tracking technologies on provider websites are impermissibly disclosing consumers’ protected health information (PHI) to third parties in violation of HIPAA. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last month sent a letter to…
Cyberattack leaves hospitals scrambling in several states
A recent attack was the latest to illustrate the potential of cybercriminals to cause havoc across an interstate health system. The Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings system incurred a ransomware attack Aug. 3 that temporarily required some patients to be diverted from emergency departments and relegated hospitals to using paper records and incorporating other downtime…
The No Surprises Act arbitration portal is temporarily closed for business after providers’ latest legal victory (updated)
Note: See the bottom of this article for the latest updates. The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor and Treasury on Friday temporarily shut down the system for settling disputes over out-of-network payment amounts under the No Surprises Act. A day earlier, a federal judge gave the Texas Medical Association (TMA) the…
Modernize the Release of Information to Reduce Overhead Costs, Ease Staffing Challenges, and Avoid Regulatory Penalties
Learn How Digital ROI Helps Your Organization Thrive. Traditional methods of medical, billing, and imaging record exchange like fax and snail mail are rife with tedious inefficiencies and pitfalls for errors that raise overhead costs, enhance staff dissatisfaction, and increase the risk of steep financial penalties for noncompliance. By adopting a digital approach to processing…