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Home Health Care Accounting Is Challenging

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Home Health Care Accounting Is challenging, not because it’s different from other accounting practices, because of the level of detail your financial statements must have in order to properly file your Home Health Care Agency Medicare Cost Reports. Our Home Health Care Accountants specialize in the field of home health care accounting, Medicare Cost Reports and other regulatory requirements.

The narrower aim of home health care accounting and our Home Health Care Accountants is to assemble and structure information on the health care system that is needed to hold the providers of health care formally accountable for the cost and the quality of the products and services they deliver. Our Home Health Care Accountants seek to measure the financial outcome of the myriad decisions made in a business during a quarter or full year.

The fundamental statement is the company’s statement of financial position. It presents dollar estimates of the real, financial and intangible assets to which the company has legal title, all of the debt it owes and the difference between total assets and total debt, which is the company’s net worth, also called owners’ equity.

Our Home Health Care Accountants understand the reporting requirements of a Home Health Care Agency via the Medicare Cost Reports. A typical business can group all its sub-contractors into a single line item on its financial statements. Home health care accounting is much different. You must track and break out the individual disciplines of the sub-contractors on your financials (i.e. PT, OT, ST, HHA etc). If these are grouped together, preparing your Medicare Cost Report will be a nightmare. Furthermore, the corporate tax returns must match the Medicare Cost Reports. Which means that if you’re chart of accounts is not sufficiently detailed the preparation of both your Medicare Cost Reports and corporate tax returns will be impossible.

A rejection of your Medicare Cost Report by Palmetto GBA could mean your payments from Medicare will be suspended.

Our Home Health Care Accountants specialize in home health care accounting. Please call us for a free initial consultation and assessment of your accounting records to ensure a smooth year end and subsequent filing of your tax returns and Medicare Cost Reports.

Medical Billing Systems – Proving Ideal For Healthcare Professionals

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Medical practitioners today are becoming increasingly stressed by the ever changing requirements for medical billing by health insurance companies. This results in delayed and sometimes denied payments. Complicated paperwork and medical billing requirements tends to take away the focus of the practitioner from providing quality healthcare to patients to managing bills, reimbursements and office administration.

To alleviate this situation, healthcare professionals are now turning to practice management software systems to help them manage better and cope with the increased paperwork. On several occasions it has been seen that the medical establishment chooses to completely outsource its medical billing processes to professional third party service providers, who provide practice management and electronic medical records services on demand for a fee. These service providers are a big advantage to medical staff because they help them to focus on their jobs instead of administration.

For the purposes of clarity on medical billing claim payments, healthcare providers should have complete understanding of different plans offered by healthcare insurance companies, local laws and government regulations.

Medical billing systems incorporate modules that can be customized to specific needs. For instance, in the case of specific healthcare establishment that may want to tune its billing to the health insurance company’s requirements it most frequently deals with, the customization is done. These will also be tweaked to ensure that all paperwork is done according to government regulations. This is critical because the practice management system not only saves time, but also prevents the healthcare professional or establishment from undue judicial processes and potential litigation.

Electronic medical records software systems help healthcare establishments manage clinical, financial and administrative functions. Integrated billing, patient check in/out, insurance claim submission and assisted decision making through a treatment plan recommendations and report generation are a few salient features of a typical electronic medical records system.

Growing Healthcare Industry Requires Health Care Management Experts

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According to the data provided by health ministry in India, the healthcare industry has been reported to witness rapid growth in recent years. The data reveals that by 2013, healthcare sector in the country is projected to grow in multiple ways and it will lead to open many other healthcare centers. So, as data reveals, there is increased demand for quality healthcare centers, similarly it will require taking help of health management professionals. So the corporate hospitals and other agencies role in the current scenario seem to play vital role. Every quality healthcare center established with the help of health management professional will successfully survive. This shows that there is adequate need for professionally trained pool of hospital administrators who can manage and deliver quality healthcare services.

Because, there is adequate demand of quality health care service the needed has risen to seek health care professionals who can give good advice to doctors. So taking Master in Healthcare Management can help you to the great extent. The course prepares candidates with a solid foundation in business analysis and decision making. It is a good exposure to real world healthcare management and rewarding professional development opportunities.

There are many top medical e-learning virtual reality-based ventures available in Delhi. They provide Masters in Health Care Management and Emergency courses programs to aspirants. Their courses are good medium to develop skills in command, control, and emergency role in a realistic virtual environment in real-time. Furthermore, the program is relevant for those who have roles in hospital and healthcare emergency preparedness planning, response and recovery. Persons who have roles in municipal or general emergency preparedness and for anyone who has an interest in this field of study should take this course.

Program Objectives

The program is considered focus on certain objectives. Candidates who pursue Masters in Health Care Management gain a storm conceptual and technical knowledge in management to medical and non-medical professionals. The course cuts the edge inputs in the area of hospital operations using latest pedagogy that helps refine the sharpen skills. Candidates are enabled to prepare qualified and efficient administrators for hospital management.

Who Should Attend?

After all, who can attend the course is a matter of concern here. Read further to know for whom this course is more profitable. Just have a look

Professionals who want to make their careers in healthcare management, executives working for hospitals and healthcare services, or persons who have completed their education in Medicine, or they who are seeking to add their management concepts in healthcare industry can take this course and it is more profitable and interesting for them.

Universal Healthcare The Pros And Cons

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Universal Healthcare is being strongly considered in the United States. Universal Healthcare basically means that every citizen will be eligible for health coverage, regardless of their ability to pay for it. There are pros and cons of such a system.

First of all, let’s take a look at the pros of Universal Healthcare (also known as Socialized Medicine). The benefits are fairly obvious. If we cover each and every citizen with affordable or free health insurance, they will be able to maintain their health regardless of their income.

One major advantage of such as system is that it can literally save lives. People die in our country each day because they cannot afford healthcare. And that includes working Americans. That is a travesty! It’s heartbreaking that there are millions of people who are contributing tax dollars to our national economy who are not in turn given their most basic need: maintenance of their health.

It almost seems obvious that it’s time to take the cue from Canada and implement Universal Healthcare. Their citizens seem to be fairly happy with the system, and it has been saving lives there on a daily basis.

However, as is true with any system (no matter how good a system it is), no healthcare solution is without fault. There are some notable disadvantages to Universal Healthcare which are worth acknowledging.

One negative side effect to providing universal healthcare is that spreading something too thin causes it to lose its inherent value. If we try to spread out our healthcare, it is possible that the quality of care will go down. Why? Because the hospitals and doctors offices will have more patients to deal with!

Naturally, no doctor would deliberately decrease his or her quality of care. Unfortunately, however, if your patient count multiplies, it can be hard to keep up. This could be overcome by the increased funding from the government under a socialized system, since that could cover a boost in medical staffing.

The other disadvantage that could result from Universal Healthcare is a lack of availability of care, causing a decrease in access to healthcare for everyone, including those who could afford to pay for it. There could be waiting lists that could prevent people from getting the care they need.

At the end of the day, we have to decide if the few drawbacks are worth it, in order to help out our fellow Americans who cannot afford to have any care whatsoever.

Medicare Fraud and Abuse The Most Profitable Healthcare Crime in the U.S.

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Medicare fraud and abuse cost taxpayers approximately $60 billion a year. Its one of the fastest and most profitable crimes in the U.S. The government health insurance program that covers 46 million elderly and disabled Americans is being hijacked by opportunists preying on patients, doctors, suppliers, and lack of oversight of the system itself.

According to President Obama, Medicare fraud and abuse is fueling enormous federal budget deficits. He recently explained that we could pay for healthcare reform if we could eliminate Medicare fraud, abuse, and waste altogether.

Although completely eliminating Medicare fraud isnt entirely realistic, curbing the growing crimes could provide healthcare to many more Americans and stop lining the pockets of the individuals, crime rings, and corrupt healthcare providers that steal a huge amount of the half trillion dollars in Medicare benefits each year.

The instances of Medicare fraud and abuse are as diverse as they are widespread. One recent high-profile case involved an Armenian-American crime syndicate that stole patient and doctor identities to setup dozens of fake clinics. The operation, which is one of the largest Medicare fraud schemes in U.S. history, resulted in over $35 million in illegal billings.

In another Medicare fraud and abuse case, nine hospitals in seven states were ordered to pay $9.4 million in fines for keeping patients overnight after undergoing what is typically an outpatient back procedure. The hospitals fraudulently billed Medicare for the unnecessary services. In still another case, eight nurses in Florida carried out an $18.7 million Medicare fraud scam in which they forged patient files to make it appear that they required home health care services that they didnt need or receive.

Although these are just a few of the many types of Medicare fraud and abuse scams occurring each year, they show the urgent need to be vigilant about preventing Medicare scams. From charging for durable medical equipment (DME) never received to using a deceased doctors information to continue to bill patients, common Medicare fraud and abuse schemes include:

* Advertising “free” consultations to patients with Medicare, and then recording and using their private information for monetary gain

* Offering healthcare services or DME for free in return for a persons Medicare number for “record keeping”

* Setting up fictitious clinics with people impersonating doctors to steal private information and commit medical identity theft is another common Medicare fraud and abuse tactic

* Using real patients data, but without their knowledge, to steal their identities

* Not adhering to the FTC Red Flag Rules that alert the carriers paying the bills

* Fraudulent billing for a wheelchair, specialized hospital bed, or other DME is also a form of Medicare fraud and abuse

* Falsifying claims for expensive procedures is another common tactic, such as the $5.8 million fraudulent HIV infusion scheme in Miami in which a husband and wife team defrauded Medicare by submitting unnecessary HIV injection and infusion claims

Remember that when fraud happens to Medicare, it happens to all of us. Dont let your organization become a victim. Put your employees on the front line to spot Medicare fraud by hiring a healthcare fraud and abuse expert that provides “Lunch and Learn” presentations to help avoid, recognize, and respond to Medicare fraud. Visit www.TheIdentityAdvocate.com. or call 310.831.4400 to learn how to prevent Medicare fraud and medical identity theft.