ANI addresses rural health clinic concerns
Small and rural clinics are facing huge problems with reimbursement this year, especially with the nation in a recession.
The Healthcare Financial Management Association’s ANI: The Healthcare Finance Conference will tackle these issues in several sessions when the conference kicks off this month in Seattle.
In Session A11: “Migrating to ICD-10 Implications for Reimbursement and Quality,” representatives from the American Health Information Management Association will provide a brief explanation of what the conversion is all about, including not only the conversion to ICD-10-CM (for all providers) and ICD-10-PCS (for inpatient providers).
“We’ll be addressing the implementation steps, which will vary in scale by entity size, systems they may or may not have in place, and the use of outside vendors and clearinghouse,” said Dan Rode, MBA, CHPS, FHFMA, vice president of policy and government relations for AHIMA.
“Likewise we’ll discuss the impact of the recent ARRA legislation and the relationship to the ‘meaningful use’ definition and EHR vendors,” said Sue Bowman, RHIA, CCS director of coding policy and compliance for AHIMA.
Since each provider varies by payer mix, size, and system differences, Rode and Bowman said they hope attendees walk away from the session with some direction on what they have to do to achieve ICD-10 implementation in the next four-plus years and what impact to expect.
Rural health clinic status can improve a clinic’s Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, as long as the clinic complies with numerous federal regulations, according to Tim Wolters, a partner with BKD, LLP, and presenter for Session A06: “Rural Health Clinic Status: Reimbursement and Operational Implications.”
The session will describe the significant proposal, released last summer, to change those regulations, as well as reviewing other existing regulations.
“We will review some general operational problems common to many of the clinics we review that can help them improve overall operations,” said Rebekah Wallace, a managing consultant for BKD and presenter.
Session, A12: “Front-End Payment and Collections in a CDH World: Duke University Case Study” will explore the current environment of consumer directed healthcare (CDH) and the impact on front-end collections, bad debt and cash flow. It is designed to educate attendees on how to apply best practices to automating front-end payment and collection processes by examining a case study from Duke Medical Center on applying the right tools to facilitate collection and payment.
Speakers will be Stuart Hanson, vice president of healthcare solutions and wholesale lockbox at Fifth Third Bank, and Scott Hawig, divisional chief financial officer at the Duke University Health System’s Patient Revenue Management Organization.
