Healthcare Reform Changes - A Basic Graphical Timeline.

On 3/23/2010 president Obama signed the healthcare reform bill into law. While there are still differences that need to be reconciled between the various versions of the healthcare bill here is the timeline for healthcare reform changes and how Obama's health plan (ObamaCare) and healthcare reform affects you and your health insurance:

Effective Tips For Better Revenue Cycle Management

To keep bottom lines healthy, organizations are turning to a process called lean revenue cycle management.

Here, Gallagher provides six tips on lean revenue cycle management.

1. Focused on the mission

In order to maximize the benefits of lean management, everyone involved in the improvement process must be aligned

2. Keep an eye on Changes

It is more important now than ever to keep up to date with latest legislative decisions,” Gallagher said.

3. Understand payer contracts

Gallagher says it’s crucial for those involved in the revenue cycle to fully understand payer contracts.  

4. Scope value stream

In lean management, a value stream defines all the activities — both value-added and non-value added — required within an organization to deliver a specific service

5. Information technology is not everything

Going out and purchasing what Gallagher calls a “magic” software package is not going solve the problem, revenue cycle management or otherwise.

6. Internal transparency

Gallagher said, “it is important to be transparent internally and to not point fingers or play the blame game, but rather to focus on what you can do to fix the process.”

Source: medicalpracticeinsider

4 Healthcare Tips That Can Save Your Life

Thousands of people contact our organization with medical questions, and most of them--no matter how smart they are--contact us because they don't know how to get the medical information they need to stay well or to recover from illness. Going online can be very helpful, very confusing, or even dangerous.

Here are some simple tips to help:

1. Don't wait.

2. Be thoughtful about treatment decisions.

3. Research doctors and medical facilities.

4. Stick to reputable websites.

Read Full Article - huffington post

Obamacare Or Not, Republicans Should Focus On Reducing The Cost Of Health Care

For all the endless talk about reforming the health care system these past five years, it’s remarkable how little we've done to solve its actual problems. Spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize insurance coverage for several million people? That’s the easy part. The hard part is addressing the fact that American health care is so expensive.

The high price of U.S. health care is the fundamental reason tens of millions of Americans are uninsured. It’s the principal suppressor of middle-class wage growth. It’s a constant threat to businesses’ operating margins, and it’s the primary driver of the federal debt.

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Reform Update: Flood of New Patients Worries Mental Health Workers

Many behavioral healthcare advocates and providers across the country are reporting significantly increased demand for their services because of the Medicaid expansion in some states. But they are worried about whether underfunded and understaffed mental health centers will be able to adequately serve the flood of new clients.

Officials at Arapahoe/Douglas Mental Health Network and AspenPointe in Colorado say they have noticed an uptick in the number of Medicaid patients they're seeing. Those organizations did not have data on exactly how many more patients they're seeing.

Mindsprings Health in Grand Junction, Colo., saw an increase from about 250 people a month to 350 a month since January, and most of that increase was Medicaid patients, Michelle Hoy, the organization's regional director, told Health News Colorado. Similarly, the Mental Health Center of Denver reported that calls increased from 2,030 in January to 2,156 in March, compared with 1,500 in March of last year.

Read More on Modern Healthcare