Category: ASC Coding, Billing and Collections

Physicians are clinging to fee-for-service payment to avoid the proverbial “race to the bottom” of bundled payments, which often cut pay rates.

Medicare payments to ASCs dropped 6.4 percent between 2019 and 2020, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s March report to Congress. 

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended Medicare continue its physician fee payment freeze despite ongoing financial pressure from the pandemic.

In its March report to Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended increasing the 2023 Medicare conversion factor for ASCs and to require ASCs to report cost data. 

Southern ASCs earn the most revenue in the country, according to VMG Health’s “Multi-Specialty ASC Benchmarking Study” for 2022.

The U.S. attorney’s office asked a federal judge not to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit against the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and one of its top surgeons, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported March 10.

Twelve Michigan- and Ohio-based physicians were sentenced March 9 to prison for their roles in a scheme to perform and bill for unnecessary procedures in exchange for opioid prescriptions.

Two major credit card companies plan to increase merchant fees, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A gastroenterologist in Central Islip, N.Y., pleaded guilty March 7 to billing Medicare for millions of dollars for medical procedures that weren’t performed, according to the Justice Department.

The Surgery Center of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City is leading the charge in ASC price transparency with its all-cash model, according to a March 4 D Magazine report.