ASC Coding, Billing & Collections

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…

Snagging profitable payer contracts and high reimbursements has historically been an obstacle for ASCs, particularly when competing with hospitals' big pockets. 

Hospitals across the U.S. are seeing labor and supply costs rise with inflation and are clashing with insurers about raising contracted rates, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Growth opportunities across the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) space continue.