In light of decreasing reimbursements and industry changes,
is your company planning to stop taking assignment of benefits from
payers?
Oh, what a difference the final rule on competitive bidding
— and all the other changing industry circumstances —
have made. HomeCare asked this same question of providers in our
Forecast Survey for this year, published in December 2006. At that
time, more than 65 percent of the providers participating said they
would not stop taking assignment of benefits, while 21 percent said
they would and less than 5 percent said they had already done so.
But just look at the numbers in this month's Web poll, conducted
during July. Within the span of a few months, the percentage of
providers who said they would keep taking assignment dropped to 39
percent; the percentage who said they have already stopped doubled
to 10 percent; and another 26 percent said they are thinking about
it.
