HHS will change how it enforces the Physician Self-Referral Law, or the Stark Law, and will allow exceptions for health care providers in agreements meant to reduce costs and improve patient health, according to Trump administration officials. While the changes are good for medical groups that can use the value-based care exceptions, it doesn't provide the relief needed by many others and Congress needs to step in, said Anders Gilberg, senior vice president for government affairs at MGMA.

Filing claims immediately and responding to denials as soon as they are received are two ways physician practices can shorten their accounts receivable turnaround time. It's also a good idea to analyze the practice's accounts receivable at least every six months to ensure the denial rate isn't signalling a problem with the claims submission process.

Cybersecurity and data privacy remain the top priorities for healthcare executives in 2019, according to the HIMSS US Leadership and Workforce Survey for 2019. Developing analytics capabilities to improve outcomes and making better business decisions were also among the top considerations.

Roughly 50% of Americans between the ages of 13 and 26 have private time with their doctors, based on data from a study of 1,918 individuals who were surveyed on the topic. As reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health, findings showed factors linked to private time during consultations included older age, a higher household income and being of the same gender as the physician, and patients with private time tended to be more vocal on sensitive topics.

Charge capture, the process of recording information to send to payers and insurance companies in order to be reimbursed, is deemed important by healthcare executives but is not often discussed, according to a survey by Ingenious Med. Only a third of healthcare leaders surveyed said it is discussed weekly while 40% said it is discussed monthly or less frequently.