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Reminder: Practices should be wary of virtual credit card fees

Is your practice accepting virtual credit card (VCC) payments from payors? If so, you risk losing a significant amount of your contractual reimbursement to high interchange fees. When paying claims, some payors have shifted from paper checks to electronic payment methods, including payor-issued VCCs. With this method, when issuing payment a payor sends credit card payment information and instructions to physicians, who process the payments using standard credit card technology. This method is beneficial to payors, but costly for physicians. Health plans often receive cash-back incentives from credit card companies for ...

National health care payment summit offers discounted registration for CMA member physicians

Discounted registration is now available for California Medical Association (CMA) members who wish to attend the 11th National Value-Based Payment and Pay for Performance Summit, taking place at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco and online February 17-19, 2016. Co-sponsored by CMA, this summit is the leading forum on pay for performance, transparency and value-driven health care, providing an opportunity to engage with colleagues from across the country on the issues, opportunities and challenges facing the health care system in 2016. Leaders from industry, government and the non-profit sector will share ...

United Healthcare to pursue EFT and ERA for all contracted physicians in 2015

United Healthcare (UHC) plans to move all contracted providers from paper checks and remittances to electronic funds transfer (EFT) and electronic remittance advices (ERA) in 2015 through Optum’s Electronic Payments and Statement (EPS) system. United Healthcare stated that moving to an electronic process for checks and explanation of benefits will reduce administrative costs. UHC advised the California Medical Association that they plan to send notice of the change to contracted providers sometime in April. Physicians will be required to select to receive payment either by Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) direct ...

Are you losing money from virtual credit card payment fees?

If your practice accepts virtual credit card (VCC) payments from payors, you put yourself at risk of losing a significant amount of your contractual reimbursement to high interchange fees. When paying claims, some payors have shifted from paper checks to electronic payment methods, including payor-issued VCCs. With this method, a payor sends credit card payment information and instructions to physicians, who process the payments using standard credit card technology. This method is beneficial to payors, but costly for physicians. Health plans often receive cash-back incentives from credit card companies for VCC ...