October 31, 2019
By Ronald Hirsch, MD Service Delivery Fundamentally Changing as ASC Use Accelerates
As advances in surgery continue, more and more procedures are destined for the outpatient arena. This year saw dramatic changes for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), with the release of the 2020 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) Proposed Rule (CMS-1717-P) and the release of the final Regulatory Provisions to Promote Program…
November 1, 2018
By Ronald Hirsch, MD The Perils of Calculating Costs for New Technology
CAR-T therapy could list a single service with a $1.4 million charge. I was honored to be able to speak at the annual meeting of the National Association of Healthcare Revenue Integrity in Arizona in mid-October. Since the audience was a group of hospital revenue staff, I used my session…
September 18, 2017
By Ronald Hirsch, MD News Alert: Is Humana Putting Profits Before Patient Safety?
Late last week a case management colleague distributed an insurance company memo that had been sent to her hospital to a Recovery Audit Contractor- (RAC)-related user group. This memo required a double-take to ensure that it was not five months old, because it should have been distributed on April Fools’…
September 7, 2017
By Ronald Hirsch, MD Warning: Hospital Cardiac Service Line and Revenue at Risk
When hospital executives are asked about their specialty programs, both in terms of reputation and profitability, orthopedics and cardiology are often on the top of the list. But that may soon be changing. A great deal of attention has been paid to the proposal by the Centers for Medicare &…
August 3, 2017
By Ronald Hirsch, MD Total Joint Replacements Unwise for ASCs
My Monitor Mondays segments are usually either informational, centering on a new policy or proposal, or one of my rants, often criticizing someone for something. But on the July 31 report and in this article, I wanted to start with one and move to the other. First, my rant. OK…