Becker's ASC Review

9 Becker's ASC 22nd Annual Meeting - The Business and Operations of ASCs – Call (800) 417-2035 ny that has relationships with some of the biggest names in healthcare, including: Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, UCLA Health in Los Angeles, Arlington-based Texas Health Resources, Massachusetts General Hospi- tal in Boston, Mount Sinai Health System in New York City and Duke University Health System in Durham, N.C. 7. The Antitrust Case Against Blue Cross Blue Shield is One to Watch. It was recently reported that the Blue Cross Blue Shield As- sociation and all 37 of its independently owned companies were sued in suits advancing in a federal court in Alabama. The court consolidated claims into two plaintiff classes. One class reflects individuals and small employers, who allege Blue Cross consolidation has led to higher insur- ance prices and less competition. The second group of plaintiffs reflects providers stating that the Blue Cross consolidation has led to lower prices and reimbursement. They essentially say that they are able to buy services as a cartel for all practical purposes. Here, the case is interesting in that it survived a motion to dismiss and is backed by very significant lawyers. Blue Cross has previously been sued over the years on antitrust claims, and it is not clear where this will go. It is interesting in the context of the situation where there has been so much consolidation amongst insurance companies between Cigna, United, Aetna and Blue Cross such that in most states one or two is the dominant payer. 8. PPACA Has Not Provided the Benefits for Nonprofit Hos- pitals as Expected. Many nonprofit hospitals, particularly systems, continue to perform pretty well. There was, however, a very interesting statement within a recent Moody's report that clarified how the new health law has not been a tremendous boon for these hospitals. Hospitals in states that expanded Medicaid were largely expected to benefit from more paying customers (unpaid bills fell 13 percent on average), but their 2014 operating margins did not increase any more than hospitals in the 22 states that did not expand Medicaid, Moody's found. This is, again, an interesting story in that so much has been touted about the healthcare law and Medicaid expansion providing stability for hospitals and health sys- tems, and it seems as though this may not be the case this far. A Moody's analyst said the finding by Moody's questions the political and industry narrative that Medicaid expansion lowers bad debt and drives financial improvements for hospitals. Should you have any questions, please contact me at sbecker@beckershealth- care.com, or Editor-in-chief Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com or President and CEO Jessica Cole at jcole@beckershealthcare.com. Very truly yours, Scott Becker ACCELERATE REVENUE CYCLES. INCREASE EFFICIENCY. MAXIMIZE PROFITABILITY. The largest management companies and over 20,000 healthcare providers trust Surgical Notes' cutting-edge revenue cycle management solutions and services to enhance the financial strength and performance of their ASCs. Contact us to learn more! (800) 459-5616 | sales@surgicalnotes.com | www.surgicalnotes.com ICD-10 ICD-10 ICD-10 ICD-10 ICD-10 Transcription Coding Document Management Central Billing Office EHR

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