ASC Coding, Billing & Collections

Medicare officials said they have temporarily abandoned a proposed measure that would have penalized physicians for ordering "non-recommended" prostate-specific antigen tests to screen for prostate cancer, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Collective bargaining legislation is making its way through the New York legislature that would give physicians leverage when negotiating payer contracts, according to a General Surgery News report.

Various Connecticut advocacy groups are protesting the Anthem-Cigna merger, according to Hartford Courant.

Mercer L.L.C. projections found the penalty for employers not offering employees healthcare coverage in 2017 is expected to rise, according to Business Insurance.

A bill in Colorado aims to create a state study of higher costs in certain regions to determine whether the entire state could become one geographic area for insurance purposes, according to Summit Daily.

Starting May 1, California will make available full-scope Medi-Cal benefits for children who meet the eligibility requirements for the low-income Medi-Cal program but previously did not qualify because they did not meet immigration requirements, according to the Los Angeles Daily…

If the merger between Advocate Health Care in Chicago and NorthShore University HealthSystem in Chicago goes through, both systems plan to create a low-cost health plan that would be offered to Chicago-area employers, according to the Chicago Tribune.

A recent study found Medicare Advantage patients are 10 percent less likely to have avoidable hospitalizations than traditional fee-for-service Medicare patients, according to Medscape Multispecialty.

On March 22, both of California's health insurance regulators signed off on Centene's $6.8 billion acquisition of Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Health Net., according to California Healthline.

Congress passed legislation that would adopt site neutral payments for medical providers treating Medicare patients last fall, affecting off-campus hospital outpatient departments built or acquired after 2016, according to a report from The Hill, and savings to Medicare are at…