Healthcare Financial Management

View more issues: Oct 2005, Nov 2005, Jan 2006

Articles in Dec 2005 issue of Healthcare Financial Management

• Uninsured billing lawsuit granted class action status
• Katharine S. Klein
• HFMA to partner with patient safety foundation
• No small change: payment trends call for big preparations for 2006: payment trends in 2005 posed severe challenges for hospitals due to changing payment methods and increased denials and underpayments. What trends should you look to in 2006 to protect you
  by Martin J. D'Cruz
• Minding your business: outpatient physical therapy services can produce a significant ROI if they are managed well. Learn how to get the most from your investment
  by John Britt
• U.S. medical liability trend showing strong signs of improvement
• New report outlines capital allocation strategies for hospitals
• Thomas W. MacVaugh
• Hospital outpatient rule provides 3.7 percent update
• Uninsured class action settlement announced
• Former HFMA chairman receives national award
• Shasta Manuel, CPA
• OIG counsel emphasizes caution on gainsharing ventures
• The Department of Defense has published, in the Oct. 24 Federal Register, FY06 updates to the Tricare DRG-based payment system that conform to changes made to the Medicare PPS, effective for admissions occurring on or after Oct. 1
• Breaking the code
  by Dennis Mitchell
• The next big thing: health care when the patient pays; the consumer-directed healthcare movement is designed not to create a new market, but to move the present market to a less expensive model
  by John M. Shiver
• Point-of-service collections
  by Brian Robertson
• Consumer-directed pricing: five dollars for an aspirin … 10 dollars for a Band-Aid … the highest prices charged to those least able to pay
  by Richards L. Clarke
• Darlene Rodowicz
• Study finds altered billing and collection practices
• Meeting the pay-for-performance imperative: pay for performance is one of Washington's most popular healthcare buzzwords
  by Gail R. Wilensky
• Rebecca Speight, FHFMA, CPA
• Medicare coding and billing update
• Long-term care facilities required to post nursing staff data
• Dealing with self-pay patients—compassionately: like the sword of Damocles, collecting from self-pay patients should be approached with caution—and resolve
  by Gordon J. Mountford
• Leadership and power
  by Jim Summers
• Medicare, Medicaid spending packages reveal deep divide
• Coins to cheesecake: forces of influence in healthcare finance
• Quotes of note
• 'The mission is still the mission'
  by Robert D. Ramsey, Jr.
• Home health payments to rise 2.8 percent in 2006
• IRS to shine compliance spotlight on exempt hospitals
• 2005: the best and the worst
  by Richard Rodriguez
• Are you keeping an eye on your organization's financial pulse?
• Employers' hourly costs for health insurance rose an estimated 6.7 percent for the year ending September 2005, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
• CMS
• Insurers to offer more consumer-directed health products
• Capturing the benefits of web-based connectivity: provider-payer relationships are improving, thanks to third-party web-based solutions
  by James R. Gordon
• Demystifying 'digital hospitals': the IT industry is at it again. The term digital hospital is spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt among hospital executives. What is it? Do I need to be one? How can I become one?
  by Randy L. Thomas
• Illinois approves plan to expand health coverage to all children
• Shapard to depart as Tenet's CFO
• In a study of the effect of a prototypical pay-for-performance program on quality of care
• Publishing by association: you probably know Groucho Marx's line about not wanting to belong to a club that would have him as a member. But it's a whole different feeling when everyone else wants to loin your club
  by Robert Fromberg
• Smart strategic planning for cardiovascular services
  by Karen Hartman
• Revenue growth how to win the war for markets and share
  by Alan M. Zuckerman
• Margins for Medical Groups decreased in 2004
• Staci M. Hicks, CPA
• IRS
• Growth in uninsured Americans outpacing federal spending on the healthcare safety net
• Dave Barry to headline HFMA's Region 11 symposium