“Here is a simpler approach. Why not make it illegal for hospitals to charge uninsured people more than X percent of what Medicare pays for a procedure?”
Day: March 7, 2013
Insurance Agent Sues School District – Claims Breach of Contract
“You give enough money, it doesn’t matter how poor you perform, you’re going to get the contract — at least in La Joya…..”
Continue reading Insurance Agent Sues School District – Claims Breach of Contract
Trickle Up Economics
By Rob Lamberts, M.D.
It’s been a month since I started my new practice. We are up to nearly 150 patients now, and aside from the cost to renovate my building, our revenue has already surpassed our spending. The reason this is possible is that a cash-pay practice in which 100% of income is paid up front has an incredibly low overhead. My admitted ineptitude at financial complexity has forced me to simplify our finances as much as possible. This means that the accounting is “so simple even a doctor can do it,” which means I don’t need any front-office support staff. I don’t send out bills because nobody owes me anything. It’s just me and my nurse, focusing our energy on jury-rigging a computerized record so we can give good care.
Surgical Notes Launches Ambulatory Surgery Center Network
DALLAS, March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Jeff Blankinship, president of Surgical Notes, the preeminent nationwide provider of transcription, coding and other related information technology services for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), has announced the launch of the Surgery Center Network (SCN), a new service that highlights and connects ASCs to the general public, insurance plans, group health and workers’ compensation payers.
Hosted at www.SurgeryCenterNetwork.com, SCN features an established network of ASCs. By accessing the network, users can perform surgery cost comparisons, receive surgery education and outcomes data, and conduct searches to locate and evaluate ASCs in their neighborhood or throughout the country. Surgery centers joining the SCN network receive significant benefits, including a comprehensive listing and direct link to their website, and increased exposure to work-related and cash-paying patients.
“We have designed SCN to be a high-performance, specialty carve-out network that will educate healthcare consumers on what is an ASC and its benefits,” said Blankinship. “Physicians at ASCs perform a diverse and growing range of surgical procedures that are safer, better quality, and more affordable than having these same procedures performed in hospitals and other settings. By providing information about the tremendous value of receiving care in an ASC, SCN will help bring to surgery centers the incremental patient volume they need and desire from private-pay patients, group health third-party administrators, employer groups, and workers’ comp carriers.”
There are significant plans to expand the services provided through SCN. In the coming weeks, the website will see a number of new features added, including a data quality and performance analysis portal developed with leading IT firm Fusion Labs and a property, casualty and medical malpractice rate estimator developed with Gallagher & Associates, the fourth largest risk management company in the world.
“We expect SCN to quickly become the premier direct listing association for ASCs,” adds Blankinship. “It will bring choice to outpatient care, and do so through quality medicine with pricing transparency.”