Utilization management is a system for reviewing the appropriate and efficient allocation of health care services under a health benefits plan according to specified guidelines, in order to recommend or determine whether, or to what extent, a health care service given or proposed to be given to a covered person should or will be...
Continue readingWhy America’s Rural Hospitals Suffer under Shared Risk and Full-Risk Payer Contracts
In managed care agreements, payers regard rural and urban hospitals as “hospitals”, all uniform in character. But in reality, huge variations in the demography, economics, culture, and environmental characteristics of different rural places make them very different from their urban counterparts and distinctly different from their other rural competitors. Large rural and suburban bedroom...
Continue readingManaging Managed Care Contract Renewals
Why is the process of renewing and renegotiating #managedcare #contracts still such a challenge for providers? Are they not utilizing the tools properly? Are they not adding the contracts into their systems properly? Do the tools have some necessary features missing? Is there some other reason?...
Continue readingData Blocking and its Effect on Physician Integration and Alignment
CMS Administrator Seema Verma has warned that data blocking will not be tolerated. Healthcare data can be exchanged, but software and applications providers have been accused of hoarding it because for many, their business model has been designed on deriving profits from data hoarding. But if Seema Verma’s admonitions are any indication, them days...
Continue readingReference-based Pricing Gets Put to the Test in Virginia
Make no assumptions about reference-based pricing! Not yet, anyway… Reference-based pricing in healthcare is an interesting concept. What it is and how it works: Reference-based pricing is a relatively new healthcare reimbursement model where employers contract with a company to negotiate payment rates outside a traditional HMO or PPO contractual relationship and...
Continue readingWhat’s the difference between “best efforts” and “reasonable commercial efforts”?
This morning, as I was contemplating what to write about for today’s article, I received an email from a client who red lined an offer from a health plan for the new Medicaid Managed Care initiative in Illinois. It seems the payer did not want to accept...
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