011 - Healthcare Allocation Statistics

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2+ y ago 30:22

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This week, we sit down with managing shareholder Mark Lyons to discuss the ins-and-outs of allocation statistics and how they can impact healthcare cost reports. Listen in to learn more!

0:00 Intro

1:45 What are cost reports?

2:24 What are allocation statistics?

3:23 How often do statistics and requirements change?

4:52 Equipment depreciation

8:00 Requesting changes in allocation

10:49 Affected facilities

11:45 Cost report averages and best practices

14:17 Responsibilities and communication

15:47 Worksheet B-1

19:55 Cafeteria costs

22:47 Typical tricky statistics

26:38 Maximizing reimbursements and patient care

29:04 Outro

30:00 Joke

Cost reports are an important piece of reimbursements for Medicare-certified healthcare facilities.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, those facilities have to submit an annual cost report to a Medicare Administrative Contractor. MACs work as a kind of intermediary between healthcare facilities and CMS.

Cost reports contain provider information such as:

Facility characteristics
Utilization data
Cost and charges by cost center
Medicare settlement data
Financial statement data

CMS maintains the cost report data in the Healthcare Provider Cost Reporting Information System.

Below are some high-level questions you can ask yourself when you’re gathering allocation statistics and filing out a cost report.

Questions when filing out Worksheet B-1:

Does housekeeping clean all the areas with a stat?
Are offsite locations (potential examples: Therapy, RHC, HHA, etc.) receiving an allocation from the cafeteria, housekeeping, or another supporting area they don’t use?
Are there better ways to allocate A&G costs (i.e., segmentation)?
Does central supply/purchasing order for all departments, or do some departments do their own ordering (e.g., lab, pharmacy, etc.)?
Does maintenance provide services to leased buildings?
Why are the non-reimbursable areas receiving allocations? Are those correct? If so, is there a way to limit the allocations?
Is there a way to deflect costs from non-cost based/nonallowable cost centers?
Can you direct cost certain costs for specific areas versus using allocation statistics?
When was the last time you updated your square-footage statistics? If it’s been more than a year, it’s a good idea to make sure the square-footage stats are up to date.

34 episodes

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