New Hampshire House Rep. introduces price transparency bill.
New Hampshire House Representative Marilinda Garcia recently submitted a bill that would require healthcare providers including ambulatory surgery centers, hospitals and physician offices to provide pricing for their 25 most commonly performed procedures. The state currently has NHHealthCost.org, which provides some price transparency, but not all of the data it uses is up-to-date and complete. Bedford Ambulatory Surgical Center CEO Nick Vailas says the site needs more raw data and is currently not very user-friendly. A House subcommittee will meet to draft a new version of the bill in September.
Banner Health acquires full ownership of Banner Thunderbird surgery center.
Next week, Banner Health will officially acquire full ownership of the ambulatory surgery center on the Banner Thunderbird Medical Center campus in Glendale, Ariz. The surgery center, previously owned in part by a small group of physicians, will be converted into the hospital’s outpatient department.
Carlsbad Surgery Center surgeons perform pro-bono procedures.
As a part of the SDCMSF Project Access San Diego, the surgeons of Carlsbad (Calif.) Surgery Center surgeons will perform 10 pro-bono general surgery procedures for uninsured patients. The surgery center hosted a complimentary surgery day last September and treated 11 uninsured patients.
Employed physician salary to rise slower than group physician salary.
While physicians as an overall group can expect to see a 2.4 percent increase in salary over the next year, group practice physicians can expect a higher increase than hospital-based physicians, according to Hay Group’s 2013 physician compensation survey. Group practice physicians are likely to see a 3.7 percent increase in salary, while hospital physicians will likely see a 2.2 percent increase.
PPACA exchange enrollment expected to reach 8.5M.
The Congressional Budget Office initially estimated 7 million uninsured Americans would purchase coverage through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act exchanges. Now a projected number of at least 8.5 million uninsured Americans are expected to utilize the exchanges.
Medicare ACOs outnumber commercial ACOs.
There are currently 488 accountable care organizations in the country. Of those, 253 have contracts with CMS. Though Medicare ACOs are in the majority now, there will be no new ones until January 2014. Commercial ACOs continue to develop and may overtake Medicare ACOs.
Mnet Financial, Amblitel offer remote billing for ASCs.
Mnet Financial and Amblitel have formed a partnership to offer a remote billing solution for ambulatory surgery centers. The billing solution will allow ASCs to bill an insurance claim, deductibles and outstanding accounts receivables while in the midst of a transaction.
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5 Things to Know About ASC Transactions for the Next 5 Years From Luke Lambert of ASCOA
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