Anesthesia Payer Contracting Challenges
In the early 1980s, Medicare started reducing payment rates for anesthesia. Over the course of a few years, the disparity between commercial payment rates…
Resources
Getting to Know You: Anesthesia Evaluates Its Surgeons
It has often been said that managing an operating room suite is like sitting on a three-leg stool where hospital administration represents one leg,…
Demystifying AI: Your Friendly Robot Assistant for Streamlined Healthcare Billing and Coding
Ever feel like you’re drowning in medical codes and tangled in billing complexities? You’re not alone! Healthcare providers nationwide struggle with the ever-changing world…
Top 5 Medical Billing Mistakes – A Self-Assessment Quiz for Medical Providers
Test your knowledge and identify areas for improvement in your medical billing process! Answer yes or no to each question. 1. Do you ever…
Showing No Deference: Federal Courts Upend Regulatory Power
When in doubt, defer to the experts. That seems reasonable—until you realize that experts often disagree with each other. So, then what do you…
Postoperative Pain Blocks: Taking Another Look
Astrophysicists had it right. Or so they thought. For decades, they held to certain assumptions about the early formation of the universe; but then…
A Medical Morality Play: Senators Take Aim at Private Equity
“Initech is an evil corporation, all right?!” For that matter, “Chotchkie’s is wrong,” as well. If you’re a devotee of the movie Office Space, you’ll…
Pre-Authorization Nation: The Growing Challenge for Medical Practices
“Mother, may I?” was the familiar refrain from an old-school children’s game that required obtaining permission before proceeding forward. If you failed to first…
Fair Market Value for Anesthesia Practices
The notion of a fair market value (FMV) analysis is very common in real estate. The intent is to determine the price that a…
Medicare to Deny Anesthesia for Facet Injections
The trend continues. At least as it concerns Medicare, times are getting harder for anesthesia providers in the context of pain injection procedures. As…
Pushing Against the Pillars of Power: AHA Makes Its Case to CMS
An ancient account tells of a single man who was pitted against an entire community, including its rulers and a throng of thousands. But…
Cracking the Code: Qualifying and Quantifying the QZ Modifier
It was called the Enigma machine. During WWII, it was Germany’s fail-safe encryption device that would secure all communications between its fleet of U-boats…
