ASC Coding, Billing & Collections

From a Maine physician group ending its contract with Anthem to Blue Cross Blue Shield updating its colonoscopy policy, here are six payer updates from the last 60 days:

As the healthcare industry continues to move away from fee for service and toward value-based care, alternative payment models are expected to become more popular among patients, insurers and providers.

With the trends in healthcare moving toward value-based care models, ASCs could be in the perfect position for growth. 

Three lawsuits have been filed against healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group and UnitedHealthcare in the last month — including two ASCs filing suits. 

Here are five updates from the last 60 day about one the country's largest insurers: 

Medicare per-procedure payments to hospital outpatient departments were 2.1 times larger than payments to ASCs, according to new research published by the Rand Corp. 

Oklahoma Heart Hospital South, a physician-owned hospital based in Oklahoma City, paid $1.2 million to settle billing fraud allegations May 16.

National Medical Billing Services acquired anesthesia, ASC and pain management revenue cycle management provider Medi-Corp, according to a May 17 news release shared with Becker's.

Surgery centers have advocated for site-neutral payments with hospital outpatient departments, so the same rates are paid regardless of where the procedure is performed.

CMS has passed several measures in the last year affecting ASC reimbursements, including removing 255 procedures from the ASC-payable list. For Cathy McCue, MSN, RN, administrator of Uropartners Surgery Center in Des Plaines, Ill., CMS' actions point to a prioritization…