Anesthesia’s Best Payors for 2011
It can be difficult to determine which payor is the best payor because physicians often find benefits and drawbacks from each company. According to Medscape’s Insurer Ratings Report 2011, 54 percent of physicians say the level of payment is the most important factor in making a payor their best payor. Other important factors include that the company is easy to do business with (15 percent) and the frequency of denials (13 percent).
The survey was sent to 307,000 physicians in the United States and gathered 10,214 respondents.
Here are the top two “best” payors indicated by physicians in different specialties. Overall, 29 percent of physicians reported Blues Plans as their best payor with Aetna a distant second, at 10 percent.
Anesthesiology voted for :
- Blues Plans: 21 percent and
- United Healthcare: 12 percent
HHS Announces Intent to Delay ICD-10 Compliance Date
As part of President Obama’s commitment to reducing regulatory burden, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen G. Sebelius today announced that HHS will initiate a process to postpone the date by which certain health care entities have to comply with International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition diagnosis and procedure codes (ICD-10).
The final rule adopting ICD-10 as a standard was published in January 2009 and set a compliance date of October 1, 2013 – a delay of two years from the compliance date initially specified in the 2008 proposed rule. HHS will announce a new compliance date moving forward.
”ICD-10 codes are important to many positive improvements in our health care system,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “We have heard from many in the provider community who have concerns about the administrative burdens they face in the years ahead. We are committing to work with the provider community to reexamine the pace at which HHS and the nation implement these important improvements to our health care system.”
