The American Health Information Management Association held a convention recently, and healthcare billing, coding and information trends were presented, according to SearchHealthIT.
ASC Coding, Billing & Collections
Chicago-based electronic health record vendor Allscripts hired Richard Poulton as its chief financial officer, according to Healthcare Finance News.
Overall healthcare prices decreased slightly from August to September, falling 0.5 percent, and hospital prices decreased 1 percent, according to Healthcare Finance News.
Burlington, Mass.-based Nuance Communications, the company behind such voice control software as Apple's Siri, is expanding into the medical technology industry with two recent acquisitions, according to The Boston Globe.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will be investing $100 million over five years to create a comprehensive data warehouse to house financial, clinical, administrative and other information from more than 200 sources, according to Information Week.
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An optimally functioning revenue cycle is crucial to an ambulatory surgery center's success.
Litton & Giddings Radiological Associates announced a potential HIPAA breach, which may impact the personal health information of 13,000 patients, according the Healthcare IT News.
Outsourcing billing services may be a helpful option for surgery centers and physician groups who want to focus on patient issues rather than being financially-centric, according to Med City News.
In the third quarter of the 2012 federal fiscal year, Medicare Recovery Auditors (RACs) collected $657.2 million in overpayments — the highest total of any quarter since October 2009, according to CMS' quarterly RAC newsletter (pdf).
Three physicians and health policy directors with Physicians for a National Health Program conducted a study on how Medicare pays private insurers, also known as Medicare Advantage plans, and they identified overpayments totaling $282.6 billion since 1985.