ASC Coding, Billing & Collections

Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group reported strong first-quarter growth, with Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Optum revenues hitting $26.4 billion.

Like other independent practices, Oakland Park, Fla.-based Midland Medical had difficulty finding the time and resources to fulfill quality reporting tasks, monitor patient outcomes and track costs, according to RevCycleIntelligence.com.

The percentage of physicians involved in accountable care organizations dipped from 36 percent in 2017 to 28 percent in 2019, according to Medscape's "Physician Compensation Report 2019."

ASCs should evaluate billing performance and implement process improvements at the end of every financial quarter, according to Lakewood, Colo.-based Pinnacle III, an ASC management company.

Patients largely consider surgical cost to be the most important factor when choosing a provider, according to an Advisory Board report.

Payers are leading the outmigration of care by steering patients from hospital outpatient departments to ASCs, according to an Advisory Board report.

CMS penalized San Antonio-based University Health System for having hospital-acquired infection and patient injury rates in the bottom 25 percent nationally in 2018, Rivard Report reports.

The American Hospital Association is challenging CMS's 2019 payment reductions to off-campus hospital outpatient clinic visits, and the move toward site-neutral payments, with a new study that claims patients at hospital outpatient departments are poorer and sicker than ASC patients.

ASCs can maximize their profits by implementing a holistic strategy that addresses marketing, patient experience and operations, according to VIE Healthcare Consulting Founder and CEO Lisa Miller.

ASCs should follow best practices to avoid getting tripped up by complicated payer contracts, according to Healthcents, a managed care contracting services company.