Harmony Healthcare

The COVID-19 pandemic altered many plans for businesses throughout the United States. Many organizations were forced to delay initiatives and activities they’d scheduled months in advance. Some had to cancel them altogether. Multiple government agencies also were negatively impacted by the pandemic, including those that serve and regulate the healthcare industry. In addition to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which rapidly became the focus of media coverage, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) scrambled to figure out how to alter their…

April showers and May flowers mean one thing: spring! Unfortunately, it’s also the time of the year many individuals – and businesses – conduct spring cleaning. We’re not only talking cleaning windows and vacuuming curtains though. For hospitals, it means working to approve the upcoming fiscal year's operating budgets based on both actual results and year-end projections. These projections will most likely be challenging due to the negative financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many hospitals and healthcare providers were operating on thin margins before the pandemic, with only enough cash and patient receivables to cover 3 to 4 months…

The end of May marks the unofficial beginning of summer here in the United States. It’s the typical time of the year - pandemic notwithstanding - when schools are out of session, individuals and families take vacations, and temperatures in some parts of the country start to rise into triple digits. For Medicare-certified institutional providers whose fiscal year coincides with the calendar, the end of May is also the time they submit their annual cost report to their Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC). This also is the case for organizations such as accounting, audit, consulting and law firms; medtech enterprise staffing…