Teaching Hospitals: Where to Find the Big Fraud?
"The medical education community is up in arms over the HHS (US Department of Health and Human Services) inspector general's PATH audits, which could cost the nation's medical institutions billions of dollars.
"So far, two institutions have been audited under the 'Physicians at Teaching Hospitals,' or PATH, program. The Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania agreed to pay the government $10 million to resolve 'alleged errors' in billing, plus a penalty of $20 million. And Thomas Jefferson Faculty Foundation is paying $6 million in overpayments and $6 million in fines.
"Currently, about 30 institutions are undergoing audits, with the inspector general expected to announce several settlements in the next two months."
With almost 25% of the teaching hospitals being audited for Medicare fraud, perhaps the real culprits in the high cost of health care will finally be discovered. But one still has to wonder why this article tells the reader that these audits "could cost the nation's medical institutions billions of dollars" instead of saying that the nations medical institutions have cost the American public billions of dollars!
Source: Walking the auditor's gangplank. American Medical News, December 9, 1996.
Back pain? Blame the psoas. Seems as if everybody wants to dive headfirst into their psoas at the first sign of trouble with the lumbopelvic-hip region. Perhaps no other muscle is blamed more for causing problems than the psoas. Yes, it is an important stabilizer of the lumbar spine, but it shouldn't be the only one on which you focus. There is another big player on the scene: the iliacus.
Two closely related viruses of herpes simplex, HSV-1 and HSV-2, can infect the human body. HSV-1 mostly infects the gums and skin, although it can cause more serious infection in the brain. HSV-2 mostly infects around the genital area. Infection with the virus can be unsightly and painful, especially for HSV-2.
What’s the simplest way to ensure prompt payment for your claims? Ensure that the insurance payer has no reason to deny them. Submitting a “clean claim” from the start can have a more significant impact on your net collections than any other step in your billing workflow. Net collections and accounts receivable (AR) can improve significantly when claims are clean from the start.
