Tag: TripleTree

The Evolving Role and Stature of Health Information Management (HIM)

Aug 1, 2018

By SETH KNELLER

Several companies with roots in the Health Information Management (HIM) sector have emerged in recent years to address the gaps and limitations associated with most EHR deployments. Although some of these companies have been around for years, and are sometimes incorrectly “boxed” as providing commoditized services in the areas of transcription and release of information services, several have developed exceptional new technology in the fields of clinical language comprehension and analytics that is highly relevant for the business objectives of the most progressive health systems.

The unique ability of certain firms to impact the evolution of the clinical documentation and analytics landscape stems from:

The much broader scope of data they can access and analyze due to their ability to source and organize both structured and unstructured clinical data.
Their position at the middle of the RCM value chain where clinical data capture and analysis intercept with complex regulatory and financial concepts that are designed to align reimbursement with the appropriateness of care being delivered.
Their potential to rationalize “siloed” functions in health systems related to case management, care coordination, utilization review, and compliance at a time when providers are responding to new reimbursement and risk-shift models that require them to operate more like payers.

State Insurance Exchange Blind Spots: Unknown Risks and Unintended Consequences

Sep 23, 2013• 6

By Seth Kneller

October 1st marks the first ever public exchange open enrollment season. This means some of the speculation around consumer awareness and understanding, enrollment/uptake, premiums, and payer participation (not to mention the technical readiness of the exchanges) will finally subside and give way to a clearer picture of the PPACA’s initial success in mandating individual health coverage.

Despite this approaching level of clarity, however, several very significant “blind-spots” will continue to persist, principally for the health insurance carriers that choose to participate by offering PPACA compliant plans in the exchange.

This is due to the law’s guaranteed issue mandate prohibiting health carriers from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions. As a result, the traditional enrollment process which consists of a comprehensive assessment of each applicant’s health status and risk cast against the backdrop of time-tested underwriting guidelines is completely thrown out.

What takes its place is an extremely limited data set (i.e., the member’s age, tobacco/smoking status, geographic region, and family size) from which carriers can determine pre-approved premiums and variability therein. To use an analogy, health insurance companies no longer have a “bouncer at the door” turning people away, or a sign reading No shirt, No shoes, No service at the entrance.

In other words, everyone, regardless of their risk profile, must now be welcomed in with open arms and with very limited risk-adjusted rates.

This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if the enrolling population comprised a well understood risk pool representing a true cross-section of the population. The reality, however, is that a predominantly unknown and potentially unhealthy population will flood the individual health insurance marketplace in a two weeks just as most states quickly phase out their high-risk pre-existing condition pools and shift them into the exchanges.

From ZPICS to RADVS: The Alphabet Soup of Patient Charts and Payment Tracking

Jan 9, 2013• 2

By Conor Green

We’ve written about the Recovery Audit Contracts (RAC) program previously and thought it would be worthwhile to check back in on recent news in this space. According to CMS, in FY 2012, RAC auditors collected $2.29B in 2012, nearly three times the amount recouped in 2011.

What’s apparent from this data is that a large step up in audit activity is obviously occurring, which will only accelerate in 2013 as auditors begin looking at evaluation and management (E&M) CPT codes commonly used by family physicians outside of the hospital setting. In fact, when we match this CMS data against the latest results from the American Hospital Association’s RACTrac survey of 2,260 hospitals, it’s even more obvious that the level of activity around responding to requests for patient charts and managing the audit process is growing at an extremely rapid pace.

Linking Meaningful Use and HIT Sector Consolidation

Oct 16, 2012

By Barrett Lynner

Since January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have implemented incentive programs to drive meaningful use of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) technology – software and support tools that represent a roughly a $40B marketplace.

In August, CMS reported that $6.9B in total EMR incentives were paid to 143,800 physicians and hospitals – a number that will likely increase markedly in the coming quarters. This is because hospitals and eligible professionals know that to receive the highest possible financial incentive they must deploy and demonstrate meaningful use of an EMR before 2014.

Curiously, these incentives don’t seem to be enticing as only 20% of Medicare and Medicaid eligible providers are taking strides toward EMR implementation and only 55% of eligible hospitals have received an EMR incentive payment. We think they’re delaying investments for a few reasons.

· Implementation costs are high, and the financial return of EMR systems isn’t fully proven
· Poorly preforming EMR vendors are causing senior hospital executives to consider their options
· Clinical leadership unwilling to change the clinical processes required to derive value from an EMR system
· Creating and maintaining clinical content for a successful EMR system is very complex

Economics and Health Systems

Sep 5, 2012• 3

By Conor Green & Chris Hoffmann

Two of the largest healthcare systems in the Twin Cities have announced plans to merge – and if approved it will created the second largest hospital system in Minnesota in terms of revenue (Mayo Clinic is first).

For those non-Midwesterners – the geographical environs of the Twin Cities Metro area comprise a 50 mile circumference anchored by Minneapolis to the west and St. Paul to the east. At a high level, this move essentially links West (Park Nicollet) and East (HealthPartners) and according to news releases from both organizations, the combined health system will include more than 20,000 employees and 1,500 multispecialty physicians. However, there is a more compelling angle to this story.

On the surface the motivation for this move could be primarily economic: The average operating margin for a U.S. hospital is 2.5% — tough financial sledding in a disrupted and crowded market. Overly simplified, the economics of a hospital requires keeping beds full (aka “heads in beds”) … and as hospitals today strive to better align with physicians in order to get more than their fair share of referrals, a range of new business models and ways to engage consumers are emerging in the marketplace.
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