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…
Hospitals can recover all eligible Medicare bad debts by automating the Medicare bad debt review process
One company addresses the challenges of complex rules regulating Medicare bad debt processes and reporting, which makes payment recovery for hospitals difficult.
HHS can continue using Worksheet S-10 to calculate uncompensated care payments after federal court ruling
A federal district court dealt hospitals a defeat in a case about uncompensated care payments, issuing a summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Hospitals get relaxed Medicare repayment terms, short delay of DSH cut in federal funding bill
Hospitals will get some flexibility in the repayment of Medicare advance payment loans and a delay in uncompensated-care payment cuts under a new federal funding law.
Latest COVID-19 federal assistance only partially targets hospitals
Hospitals will quality for only some of the new provider-assistance funding pools HHS unveiled this week.
The yin-yang of Medicaid: Expected federal regulations will increase number of uninsured despite increase in states taking expansion dollars
Despite more states considering taking Medicaid expansion dollars, federal regulatory efforts may drive an acceleration in the number of uninsured.
Big drop in Medicaid enrollment drives 2018 increase in uninsured rate
In 2018, 1.9 million fewer people were covered by some type of health insurance, and they were most likely former Medicaid enrollees, according to new federal survey data.
Bad debt expense benchmarks: U.S. acute care hospitals show improvements since 2015
Data Trends: Bad debt expense as a percentage of revenue for U.S. hospitals declined from 2015 through 2018.
Ask the Experts: Up-Front Reserves
What is the industrywide uncollectable percentage for accounts receivable that hospitals can set aside as up-front reserves?
Ask the Experts: Analyzing Bad Debt
What are best practices related to aging accounts receivable buckets and determination of reserve rate-based time frames?