Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Zero in on problem areas through routine checks to protect your facility.

Hanging your hopes on promises of better Medicare pay? Don't count your money just yet.
     
That's the message for providers in findings released by Pricewaterhouse Coopers' Health Research Institute. The report, titled "President Bush's Second Term: Prescribing Private Solutions For The Nation's Healthcare Problems," projects how private sector solutions, a looming budget deficit, rising health spending and an aging baby-boomer population will impact reimbursement for providers.
 
Key: Don't rely on Medicare reimbursement increases. A Balanced Budget Act similar to the 1997 version could translate into cuts in the Medicare program of about $450 billion over the next 10 years - "roughly the same as the increase in spending under the Medicare Modernization Act," the report says.
 
Other funding problems: Health savings accounts and plans to privatize Medicare through the use of private health and drug plans are still contingent on sufficient government payment increases, the report warns. And more money is also needed to make adoption of health information technology a reality.
 
To read more, go to http://pwchealth.com/cgilocal/hcregister.cgi?link=reg/healthpolicy.pdf.