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University Daily Kansan, April 30, 1981
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Med Center billing plan to change
BY BRIAN LEVINSON Staff Reporter
Slow payment and inefficient billing at the University of Kansas Medical Center have prompted both the Kansas House and Senate Ways and Means committees to approve funds this week for a new billing system there.
The House committee also recommended that the Legislative Coordinating Council approve an interim study of the problems.
Richard Von Ende, KU executive secretary, asked the House committee for $250,000 for the new system.
The House passed the appropriation as part of an omnibus appropriations committee also approved the fund when the omnibus bill reached the Senate.
Keith Nicher, University director of business affairs, said yesterday that the Med Center would either purchase new computer software that would allow patients to access its billing process or hire a data processing firm to do the Med Center's billing.
"Which one we choose depends on which one is affordable to us," Nitcher said. "A billing service would probably be more reliable."
The Med Center was also figuring out ways to reduce the cost of running its billing office, he said.
In addition to a new billing system, the bill also included funds for a full-time liaison to work with Med Center officials for one year, in an effort to settle $195,000 in disputed Medicaid claims.
Nitcher said the University had held continuing discussions with both the legislative committees and officials of the department of Social and Rehabilitative Services to resolve the disputed claims.
SRS is the state agency responsible for reimbursing the Med Center and other hospitals for services provided to Medicaid patients.
The reimbursement problem came to the legislature's attention in February when SRS refused to reimburse the bills for $1.2 million in Medicaid claims.
William Richards, SRS commissioner for income maintenance and medical services, said earlier that the claims were not being paid for a number of reasons.
Those reasons include duplicate claims, claims that were ineligible for SRS reimbursement, claims that were not filed within the required time after services were provided and claims that needed adjustment.
Robert Harder, SRS secretary, said the Senate committee added the liaison position to the bill.
"With the liaison, hopefully we will not have to repeat the intensive efforts we had (at the Med Center) in February."
"The individual will have the capability of working in whatever ways necessary to ensure the rapid reimbursement of (Medicaid) claims." Harder said.
Nitcher said the Med Center would work with the liaison to perfect its admission procedures and its acceptance and processing of Medicaid claims.
At the Board of Regents meeting two weeks ago, Nitcher said the Med Center would face a $2.4 million deficit June 30, the end of the 1981 fiscal year.
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EVEN IN SPACE THE ULTIMATE ENEMY IS STILL MAN.
Asked whether they would be interested in taking a one-course course in basic library research skills at Watson Library, 34 percent of the students said they would be interested in the course, and 32.3 percent definitely take the course and 32.3 percent would not enroll in the course. And 24.8 percent could no decide.
The report notes that "although 8.5 percent is a relatively small figure, the majority undergraduates on campus this spring will produce an enrollment of 1,393 students."
However, on another KU change, the survey's results were close.
11 percent disapproved of requiring the teacher evaluation in all classes, and 22 percent had no opinion.
An overwhelming majority of KU undergraduates want 3.2 percent beer sold at football games in Memorial Stadium, according to a student opinion survey released yesterday.
Survey indicates desire for stadium beer sales
A survey of the campus media found, that 61.7 percent of those polled got most of their information about campus events and activities from the daily Kansan, and just more than 24 percent cited word of mouth.
The survey, conducted two weeks ago by the Student Opinion Survey Committee, polled 330 students in 15 randomly selected undergraduate classes. The survey's margin of error is five percent.
Results found that 71.8 percent of the students agreed or strongly agreed that beer sales should be approved. Although 20.4 percent of the students disagreed or strongly disagreed with the sale, almost 8 percent said that they had no opinion.
The survey also showed that students endorsed the Curriculum and Instruction set as a system for learning KU courses and instruction at the end of each semester.
More than 65 percent of the students said the evaluation was a useful program, and about 67 percent it should be required in all KU classes. The majority of students did not utility of the program, with more than 18 percent expressing no opinion. Only
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However, radio station KJHK received less attention. Only 5.8 percent graduates said they tuned in daily, and most graduates said they never listened to the station.
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