51
FINANCE
Kansas Hospital to Close
This Month
By Ayla Ellison
C
hesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy health system will close
Mercy Hospital Independence (Kan.) in October,
according to a KTUL report.
e hospital's inpatient services, emergency department
and ambulatory surgery services will close on Oct. 10. Some
outpatient and clinic services will remain open past that date,
but are expected to close no later than Dec. 31, according to the
report.
Mercy decided to close the hospital aer exploring multi-
ple options for the facility over the past 18 months. Declining
populations and utilization patterns, challenges recruiting and
keeping physicians, increasing capital improvement needs and
shrinking reimbursement were all cited as factors in the deci-
sion, according to the report.
"is was not the outcome we had sought or expected at
the beginning of the discernment process, and our hearts are
heavy," said Lynn Britton, Mercy president and CEO. n
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Hospital Review
150
Great Places to Work
in Healthcare 2015
2
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1
5
Hospitals Have 58%
Overturn Rate When
Appealing RAC Claims
By Ayla Ellison
H
ospitals appealed 49 percent of all Recovery Audit
Contractor claim denials in the second quarter of
2015, with 58 percent of those claim denials being
overturned in the appeals process, according to the American
Hospital Association's second-quarter RACTrac survey.
Concerning costs, 50 percent of hospitals reported spend-
ing more than $10,000 managing the RAC process during the
second quarter of 2015, 30 percent reported spending more
than $25,000 and 7 percent spent more than $100,000.
Since the AHA began the RACTrac survey in January
2010, 2,565 hospitals have participated, and 819 hospitals pro-
vided information in the second quarter of 2015. n
