Tag Archives: Hospitals

Providers Eying Medicare Advantage

William MacBain

The March 28 edition of Medicare Advantage News cites a possible trend for provider organizations to sponsor their own Medicare Advantage plans. In the waning days of the old Medicare+Choice program, many provider-sponsored plans came on hard times, so this may seem like an unusual reversal. However, Medicare Advantage lives up to its name, and offers advantages to sponsors as well as members. This includes risk adjusted capitation payments, the option to offer drug coverage that is subsidized by Medicare, and bonus payments for achieving quality targets. Even with the payment reforms imposed by the Affordable Care Act, Gorman Health Group is hearing from a number of provider organizations that the predictable capitation revenue under MA is looking preferable to the fee-for-service treadmill. Medicare fee-for-service reimbursement is becoming increasingly complex, and fee-for-service margins are eroding. The prospect of moving up the food chain is especially appealing to organizations whose costs are largely fixed. MA matches predictable fixed revenue to fixed costs, while FFS requires a constant scramble after variable revenues to achieve necessary margins.

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Of course they should! (But not for the reason you may think)

Gorman Health Group

The New York Times reports that Hospitals fear they may bear the brunt of Medicare cuts.  I should hope so!  But not because they are wildly profitable at the expense of efficiency and innovation elsewhere.

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America’s Hospital Patient Safety Problem in 1 Awesome Graphic

John Gorman

The graphics geniuses at MedicalBillingandCodingCertification.net have come out with another of their charticles examining the American health-care system. The quick takeaway? “The United States ranks dead last out of 19 developed nations in preventable deaths at hospitals.”  The problem is preventable and the solutions pretty straightforward.  The charticle is fascinating and scary.  Enjoy. 

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