AHA urges HHS to cut regulations that burden hospitals and staff
Editor's Note The American Hospital Association (AHA) has called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to eliminate or ease a variety of federal regulations, arguing that excessive administrative rules drive up costs, reduce patient access, and hinder innovation, Modern Healthcare reported May 13. According to the article,…
Low-income patients billed despite hospital tax breaks
Editor's Note Nonprofit hospitals, which are legally required to provide free or discounted care to qualifying patients, attempt to collect hundreds of millions of dollars from low-income patients annually while receiving significant tax breaks meant to ensure affordable care, according to a May 12 article from CBS News. As…
ASCA 2025: How accounting becomes an ASC revenue generator
Editor's Note Terry A. Bohlke, MSHA, CPA, CMA, CASC, emphasized that Rocky Mountain High Surgery Center is a pseudonym “to protect the innocent,” but the numbers he presented at the 2025 Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) Conference & Expo in Denver last week were real enough. Based on actual scenarios…
CSA taps Milagro’s AI coding to accelerate revenue cycle across ASC network
Editor's Note Constitution Billing and Financial Services (CBFS), the revenue‑cycle arm of Constitution Surgery Alliance (CSA), has signed a commercial agreement with health tech startup Milagro to deploy its autonomous medical‑coding platform across CSA’s 26 partnered and managed ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). The partnership was announced in an April 4 CSA press…
OR Manager Conference third place poster winner showcases impactful documentation, billing improvements of implants in orthopedic surgery
The poster presentations at the 2024 OR Manager Conference showcased exceptional perioperative initiatives, highlighting advancements and innovative practices. From streamlining documentation and optimizing billing processes to ensuring patient and staff safety in postanesthesia settings, the posters selected last year showed the ingenuity and dedication of healthcare professionals committed to excellence…
Commentary: Studies show how surgeon decisions follow the money
Editor's Note Financial incentives can shape surgeons’ decision-making, but their effectiveness depends on the structure of the payment model. This is the central message of a January 26 article in Forbes reporting on two studies: one linking a sharp increase in hernia cases to a simple Medicare coding change, and…
Simple procedure or ‘surgery’? Questionable medical billing practices cause confusion
Editor's Note Certain medical bills reclassifying minor procedures as “surgery” are driving up costs and causing confusion among patients, KFF Health News December 13 reports. Cases such as a $414 charge for a splinter removal with tweezers and a $469 charge for freezing a skin tag highlight how CPT codes…
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- Airborne bacteria pose hidden threat in cardiac ORs, study warns
- Simulation-based training boosts scrub nurses’ confidence in OR non-technical skills
- New AHRQ toolkit empowers OR teams to cut MRSA, SSI risk
- Study: Long working hours alter brain regions tied to emotion, cognition
- Survey: Burnout, rigid schedules push nurses to leave
- UCLA surgeons perform world’s first bladder transplant
- AHA urges HHS to cut regulations that burden hospitals and staff
- Commentary: Overlooking, underfunding perioperative mental health threatens patients
- Study: Fewer men undergo unnecessary prostate cancer surgery amid rise in active surveillance
- OpenAI benchmarking tool tests healthcare LLMs