Category: ASC Coding, Billing and Collections

Miami physician Mark Zager, MD, was sentenced to two years in prison for healthcare and wire fraud, the Justice Department said March 24.

Health Care Service Corp., the parent company of BCBS of Illinois, was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars after terminating its contract with a 600-physician medical group and ASC.

Healthcare is not a one-size-fits-all industry. The current and projected U.S. healthcare and other industries labor markets are experiencing labor shortages that are driving up wages for qualified workers.

Anthem is one of the largest health insurance companies in the country by revenue and membership. 

ASC owners and administrators are finding it more difficult to obtain payment from insurers as companies change coverage policies. But the current strain could push insurers and ASCs to find common ground on caring for the entire episode of care more e…

According to a study published in Health Affairs, if all physician practices performed at the level of “robust practices,” they would save an estimated $14.9 billion on fee-for-service beneficiaries annually.

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.