bad debt news from FierceHealthcare
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Doctors still mystified by what patients owe
These days, there's lots of talk about how real-time claims adjudication--or even claims estimates--will help doctors determine, on the spots, how much patients owe above and beyond their co-pay. In... Read more...
Moody's leery of uncompensated care backlash
Moody's Investor's Service is nervous about what the next few quarters will bring for investor-owned hospitals. In a recent report, it noted that such companies could take a serious hit to their... Read more...
PA hospital requests payment for patient care, up front
Pennsylvania-based Abington Memorial Hospital has adopted a more proactive and aggressive patient billing policy, requesting payment upfront. However, the policy adopted by several departments,... Read more...
Thirty-one percent of patient bad debt should be classified as charity
Connance, Inc. and PARO Decision Support, LLC have determined that nearly 31 percent of all patient bad debt in the United States is misclassified, and actually meets the guidelines for charity... Read more...
Moody's: Non-profit hospital credit downgrades at peak since 2001
Here's more evidence, if we needed any, that not-for-profit hospitals are facing tough times. Last year, according to Moody's Investors Service, not-for-profit credit downgrades exceeded upgrades by... Read more...
TX legislators propose standard for valuing hospital charity care
A work group appointed by Texas legislators has proposed a standard for calculating the cost of charity care provided by the state's non-profit hospitals, with the idea of determining the actual... Read more...
Healthcare hires while the rest of the country fires
It's a good time to be an employee in the healthcare industry. While other industries' jobless rates spiked to levels not seen since 1993, healthcare continued to expand employment in December 2008.... Read more...
Hospitals continue struggle against financial collapse
The hospital industry has been struggling for years with razor-thin margins and falling reimbursement. But with Wall Street having a meltdown, too, denying hospitals much-needed capital and credit,... Read more...
Fitch issues negative ratings for healthcare
Read FierceHealthcare's other stories for your upbeat news this morning: in this article, all we have to offer healthcare executives is more bad news from Fitch Ratings. Specifically, Fitch has... Read more...
Highmark helps providers, patients know costs up front
Health plan Highmark is giving its providers a new way to reduce bad debt that can result when patients aren't prepared for the large costs they may incur under high-deductible plans. Under its new... Read more...
