Research Roundup: Managing Nursing Home Patients, Streamlining Medical Billing ... Kaiser Health News
Health Affairs : Saving Billions Of Dollars--And Physicians' Time--By Streamlining Billing Practices – "The U.S. system of billing third parties for health care services is complex, expensive, and inefficient," write the authors, who analyzed Massachusetts General Physicians Organization staffing and cost data in fiscal year 2006. "In fiscal year 2006, the cost of excessive administrative complexity, including both expense and lost revenue, was nearly $45 million for this organization, or 11.9 percent of net patient revenue."
"A single transparent set of payment rules for multiple payers, a single claim form, and standard rules of submission, among other innovations, would reduce the burden on the billing offices of physician organizations. On a national scale, our hypothetical modeling of these changes would translate into $7 billion of savings annually for physician and clinical services. Four hours of professional time per physician and five hours of practice support staff time could be saved each week" (Blanchfield et al., 4/29).
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