Nearly one in five of your private payer payments were inaccurate in 2011, according to the AMA's latest "National Heatlh Insurer Report Card," released June 20. The average rate of inaccurate payments is 19.3% in 2011, up from 17.3% in 2010, the AMA says. That 2% jump comes out to a $1.5 billion increase in administrative costs to the health system, the AMA estimates. "A 20% error rate among health insurers represents an intolerable level of inefficiency that wastes an estimated $17 billion annually," AMA Board Member Barbara McAneny, MD, said in a prepared statement.

You and your peers may be able avoid the 1% e-Prescribing (e-Rx) Medicare payment penalty if you qualify for one of CMS’s new proposed hardship exemptions outlined in its May 26 proposed rule. If finalized, the wil give providers a more flexible timeline and more options to claim a hardship exemption for not being able to meet the e-Rx requirement by June 30. 

The latest Medicare Trustees report is out and the news isn't good: Medicare is set to go bust in 2024, five years earlier than the 2029 date projected in last year's report. The Social Security program will run out of money earlier as well, in 2036 instead of 2037. Remember: The Medicare trust fund pays for Medicare Part A, which means hospital insurance is affected. Part B payments are funded entirely by tax revenue and premiums paid by beneficiaries themselves. Nevertheless, top physician advocacy groups leapt to the fore immediately after the report was released today.

You would get a five-year vacation from the massive Medicare pay cuts called for by the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula -- if AMA President Cecil B. Wilson had his way. In his testimony before Congress, Wilson calls for a "three-pronged approach" to reforming Medicare's physician payment system. It starts with a permanent repeal of SGR, a five-year period of "stable payment updates that keep pace with the growth in medical practice costs" and a transition to new payment models.