Payers and Reimbursement

Implications of Patients' Increased Share
Current Trends

Implications of Patients' Increased Share

Patient Out-of-Pocket Expenses Rise, Squeezing Physician Cash Flow

physicianspractice.com

"Maintaining cash flow is a growing challenge for physician practices now that their "bread and butter" privately insured patients are paying more and more of their healthcare expenses out of pocket, and it will get worse..."

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Current Trends

Doctors shortchanged by insurers’ shift to credit card payments

amednews.com Aug. 26, 2013
By: Charles Fiegl

"Physician practices that have been receiving consumer credit cards as payment for their services also have been receiving lower pay than the contracted amounts agreed to in fee schedules, and the American Medical Association wants that to stop..."

Health plans consider adding "meaningful use" criteria in physician contracts

amednews.com June 21, 2010
By Pamela Lewis Dolan

"As the government enters the final stages of defining what it means for physicians to be meaningful users of electronic medical records, it appears that the financial implications for not meeting that definition are likely to affect more than Medicare pay..."

U.S. physician payments vary widely, mysteriously: study

reuters.com Sep 27, 2013
By: Kathleen Raven

"Private insurance companies across the U.S. pay doctors dramatically different amounts for the same routine office visits and services, according to a new study.Physicians at the high end of the reimbursement spectrum get more than twice as much as those at the low end for the same service, with little apparent reason for the difference, researchers say..."

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