Survey

Article Dean Dorton

Monitoring provider coding and billing risks is a constantly evolving challenge.  One great tool to monitor high risk provider billing in your organization is the Comparative Billing Report (CBR).  CBRs are generated by Medicare Administrative Contractors and summarize Medicare claims data statistics for individual providers.  CBRs are released only to the individual providers they provide data for and present results of statistical analyses that compare an individual provider’s billing practices for a specific billing code or policy group with the practices of that provider’s peer groups and the national averages. Each CBR is unique to its recipient, and each provider sees only his/her own billing data. No data attributable to any specific provider is made publicly available.

While healthcare organizations do not have access to specific providers’ reports or data, CBR topics and national- and state-level data are available online.  Healthcare organizations can combine these datasets with their providers’ Medicare claims data to monitor for potentially high outlier providers within its network.  Dean Dorton has developed an interactive report which breaks down the topics and benchmarks for select CBR topics from recent years.

Dean Dorton Healthcare

Lance Mann, CPA, CFE, CGMA
Assurance Director
lmann@deandorton.com • 502.566.1005

Adam Shewmaker, FHFMA
Healthcare Consulting Director
ashewmaker@ddafhealthcare.com • 502.566.1054

Article Dean Dorton

State tax laws continue to change rapidly throughout the country. Have you wondered about potential tax liability to other states? This survey asks just a few of the  questions states ask when determining whether a business is subject to its taxes – income, franchise, or sales and use. The weight of interpretation given to specific questions may vary from state to state.

Thinking of the states other than those in which you are already paying or collecting and remitting taxes, answer the following ten questions for each of state.

  1. Are you registered with the Secretary of State?
  2. Do you hold a business license?
  3. Do you have fixed assets or leased property?
  4. Do you have payroll in the state?
  5. Do you have independent contractors working on your behalf?
  6. Do you make sales via the internet, an app, a catalogue, or by phone?
  7. Does your total revenue from the prior year exceed $25,000?
  8. Does your total payroll exceed $25,000?
  9. Do your total sales exceed $100,000?
  10. Does your total property, total payroll, or total sales exceed 25%?

If you answered “yes” to any one of these questions, it is possible that you have a reporting or filing obligation in the state. While a lot of business owners say the prefer to “roll the dice,” that strategy can be expensive. To learn more about your potential exposure in other states, contact us or your tax advisor.

Contact your Dean Dorton advisor or other professional adivsor for more information.
If you don’t have an advisor, but would like to speak with us, send an email to:
insights@deandorton.com

Article Dean Dorton

According to Leading Edge Alliance National Manufacturing Outlook Survey

We are excited to release the results from the 2017 Leading Edge Alliance (LEA Global) National Manufacturing Outlook Survey.

With more than 250 participants, this survey report contains the expectations and opinions of manufacturing executives in more than 20 states across the country producing a wide variety of products including industrial/machining, transportation/automotive, construction, food and beverage, and other products.

Results from the survey include:

  • 74% of small manufacturers and 69% of large manufacturers expect revenue to grow in 2017.
  • Manufacturers are more optimistic about their local/regional economies than the national or global economies.
  • The top priority for manufacturers in 2017 is “cutting operations costs.” However, high-growth manufacturing respondents are more focused on “research and development,” with 12% of high-growth respondents reinvesting more than 10% of annual revenue.
  • Labor continues to be a challenge for manufacturers with 67% of respondents expect labor costs to “increase” and an additional 7% expect labor costs to “increase significantly” in 2017.
  • Appropriate cost allocation and accurate and timely data will become required capabilities for successful businesses in the industry.
  • More manufacturers will be considering both sales and mergers in 2017, as well as strategic acquisitions.

U.S. manufacturing industry headwinds are significant and include both internal issues (such as high inventory-to-sales ratios), the cost of technology, labor shortages, and external issues like the price of raw materials and strength of the dollar.

Strategic manufacturers should have ongoing conversations with all of their advisors, including their accounting and tax provider, as to how to overcome these challenges and achieve their business goals.

View the Survey Results

For more information, contact Lance Mann at lmann@deandorton.com or Mike Harbold at mharbold@deandorton.com.

Article Dean Dorton

Dean Dorton has been engaged by two physician owned hospitals with focuses on surgical procedures. Our project is to evaluate their business needs as it relates to electronic health record (EHR) systems and facilitate the evaluation, selection, contracting, and implementation of a new EHR solution. We are currently underway with the requirements definition phase of the project.

Where do you fit in? First, we would appreciate your time in filling out a very brief survey related to your existing EHR solution. The information gathered will help us determine the best possible direction and hopefully help assist us in avoiding any lessons that you may have learned the hard way.

Second, if you have found yourself in the same position as our clients (using an EHR that is not meeting Meaningful Use requirements or an EHR that has been purchased by another company and is expected to be retired), would you be interested in joining the project to explore and identify the best possible solution to meet your organization’s needs? We are planning to move both clients forward together or separately, if necessary. If a common solution can be identified, our goal is to use the combined size of the clients as price and contract negotiation leverage. Ideally, this approach will allow each client to have options that may otherwise be cost and resource prohibitive. We would be glad to include your organization in this process.

Click the button below to complete our physician owned hospital EHR survey by Friday, June 3.Take the Survey by June 3

Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Any feedback you can share will be invaluable to us in our project. For those completing the survey, we will plan to share the results with all survey participants.

Feel free to contact Jason Miller, Director of Technology Consulting, at jmiller@ddaftech.com with any questions.

View Jason Miller’s Bio