Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Oct. 22 that's meant to curtail surprise medical billing, according to MiBiz.

What do Amazon, Netflix, Google Maps, Spotify, and PayPal have in common? They're all cloud-based services.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Envision Healthcare reached a multiyear, statewide agreement with Cigna in Florida, according to an Oct. 21 announcement.

Today's healthcare environment is rife with opportunities for ASCs and hospitals — but these opportunities go hand-in-hand with a number of challenges and implications for the industry's future.

To help specialty practices prepare for changes to evaluation/management office-visit guidelines and pay rates, DecisionHealth will host three virtual summits, the healthcare news source announced Oct. 19.

The American Medical Association identified five health insurers that hold the highest market share in the most markets in its 2020 study on competition in commercial health insurance markets.

The American Medical Association published its annual study on competition in commercial health insurance markets.

Lack of competition is a worsening problem for already-concentrated health insurance markets, according to the American Medical Association's 2020 "Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of U.S. Markets."

Highly concentrated markets for commercial health insurance have grown even more concentrated over the past five years, according to a new study from the American Medical Association.

Bismarck, N.D.-based Mid Dakota Clinic settled allegations that a financial arrangement with its wholly owned ASC violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, according to an Oct. 9 case summary.

For the U.S. and comparable countries, inpatient and outpatient care was the largest category of per-capita health spending in 2018, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Southern California-based Vitality Health Plan is in dire financial need, which has caused several area hospitals and surgery centers to terminate their contracts with the insurer, The Mercury News reports.

Revenue in the ASC market is estimated to hit $43 billion in 2021, an increase of 54 percent from 2015, according to a report from Bain & Co. In contrast, the number of procedures performed in ASCs is estimated to hit 27 million in 2021, an increase of 35 percent from 2015. This highlights the movement of high-acuity, high-reimbursing specialties into outpatient settings as revenue growth is outpacing procedure growth.

Artificial intelligence technologies can help ASCs alleviate revenue and resource challenges spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic by optimizing workflow and improving revenue capture.

The 2021 CMS Physician Fee Schedule increased work relative value units, but decreased the conversion factor for reimbursement, which could result in healthcare facilities overcompensating physicians if they don't make changes to their reimbursement structure now, according to a VMG Health report.

When providing healthcare services, we are entrusted with the care of vulnerable patients. Patients are medically vulnerable, often with significant and potentially life-threatening conditions.

Becker's ASC Review compiled a timeline of significant medical coding updates that have been proposed or implemented so far this year:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest Baptist Health are collaborating to offer a new Blue High Performance Network, according to an Oct. 1 statement from the insurance provider.

Winchester, Va.-based Valley Health could lose its contract with Anthem of Virginia because of a stalled contract negotiation, Rappahannock News reports.

Since July 1, Becker's ASC Review has reported six significant changes and proposed changes to reimbursement for ASCs: