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“Can’t Miss” Event at HIMSS09—Financial Systems Symposium: "Show Me the Money!" in Today's Environment

Saturday, April 4, 2009
8 am – 1pm
Cost: $125

The healthcare finance market is undergoing major changes, with evolving patient care reimbursements, movement toward electronic payments, a push for real-time processing, increased consumer involvement and emerging new players in the financial arena. As a result, providers are re-thinking how they financially manage their practices.

Join us at HIMSS09, April 4-8 in Chicago—the industry’s biggest event for education, innovation and knowledge sharing, for a half-day program exploring today’s healthcare finance market. The Financial Systems Symposium: "Show Me the Money!" in Today's Environment  will examine topics such as:

• Electronic Payment: The Challenges and Resources
• A New Administration and Healthcare Agenda-Impacts on the Healthcare Equation (Joint Financial Systems and Payer Symposia session)
• Leveraging New Services from the Banking and Clearinghouse Sectors
• Leverage IT to Address Patient Responsibility
• The Impact of Consumerism on Healthcare: Lessons from Online Retail

"In today's economic environment, healthcare administrators are stretched to find new resources to leverage the bottom line, and the HIMSS09 Financial Systems Symposium was developed with that in mind,” notes Mary Rita Hyland, a former member of HIMSS' Financial Systems Steering Committee and the co-chair of the Financial Edge Work Group. “Key lessons learned from the online retail market and the banking sector will provide information and the impact of consumerism in healthcare and what our industry must do to survive. Attendees will learn how healthcare and IT can utilize online tools to streamline activities, as well as change the way patients look at their roles and responsibilities to service providers."

Save Money and Register for HIMSS09
There is still time to save on HIMSS09 registration. Early-bird registration is open until Jan. 26 and saves attendees up to $100. Registration includes entrance to all education sessions and the exhibit hall, the Sunday Night Welcome/Opening Reception on April 5, CD-ROM conference proceedings and registration tote bag (while supplies last). After Jan. 26 and through March 9, standard registration rates apply. Onsite registration rates apply after March 9.

When registering and making air and hotel reservations, keep in mind the important schedule change for HIMSS09. Besides the switch to an April event, HIMSS09 kicks off on Saturday, April 4, with the pre-conference symposia and workshops. Keynotes, education sessions, the exhibition and the opening reception begin on Sunday, April 5.

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HIMSS Leads Financial Systems Dialogue at Consumer Health Conference

The Consumer Health World 2008 Conference, held Dec. 7-10 in Arlington, Va., offered strategies for aligning personal health with best possible organizational performance and providing consumers with the best access to care and information in a global healthcare market. HIMSS was well represented during the Consumer Health World Financial Track on Monday, Dec. 8. Miriam Paramore, HIMSS Financial Systems Steering Committee chair and senior vice president, Emdeon Business Services, chaired the track titled The 360-Degree Financial Impact of the New Medical Consumer. Ms. Paramore offered the opening remarks on "PayPal for Healthcare.”

Ms. Paramore notes that consumerism is making the revenue cycle more complex for providers and plans. “Providing meaningful health information to consumers is still a struggle, whether that be through patient statements or PHRs," she says. “Long term, clinical and financial systems need to converge to give the consumer a full picture of their health record. IT systems need to evolve to keep pace with consumerism.”

Also during the Consumer Health World Financial Track, Joe Miller, FHIMSS, a member of HIMSS’ Financial Systems Steering Committee, and Jill Schumann Rumberger, PhD, MBA, chair of HIMSS’ Financial Systems Revenue Cycle Task Force, and an assistant professor in health administration at Pennsylvania State University in Capital College, participated in a panel titled “Re-engineering the Revenue Cycle around the New Medical Consumer.” And HIMSS Senior Director of Healthcare Information Systems Pam Matthews served as the topic leader on “Healthcare Goes Retail: Patient Responsibility Estimation and Real-time Claims Adjudication at the Point of Care.”

HIMSS’ financial systems content area is addressing the revenue and payment cycle, including the impact of consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs). “Consumer debt is rising as a result of CDHPs and hospitals are facing more bad debt writeoffs as a result," reports Ms. Paramore. “The revenue cycle processes will need to change to keep pace with the new high deductible health plans and the advent of consumer shopping for hospitals and procedures. IT systems must change to support the new business processes required by providers.” 

HIMSS’ financial systems content task forces have recently published two white papers—Payments and Patient Finance: Where the Revenue Cycle Meets the Banking System White Paper, and Re-engineering the Revenue Cycle for the Emerging Medical Consumer focused on revenue cycle management. Work led by the HIMSS Revenue Cycle Task Force, is continuing in this area.  

Click here for more information on the Consumer Health World 2008 Conference.

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FTC’s New ‘Red Flag’ Requirements Fight Identity Theft

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) ID Theft Red Flags Rule requires financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs. These programs must identify, detect and respond to patterns, practices or specific activities that could indicate identity theft. The compliance date was Nov. 1; however, the FTC announced it will not enforce compliance with the Red Flags Rule until May 1 for entities under its jurisdiction. Details about the regulation are available on the FTC’s Web site. Watch for articles on the Red Flags Rule in future issues of Financial Edge.

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HIMSS Seeks Volunteers for Financial Systems Revenue Cycle Management Ambulatory Work Group

The HIMSS’ Financial Systems Revenue Cycle Management Ambulatory Work Group, established this year, is working to leverage the Financial Systems Revenue Cycle Task Force White Paper Re-engineering the Revenue Cycle for the Emerging Medical Consumer, to develop a resource relevant to the ambulatory environment. Areas of focus for this work group include leveraging information technology with eligibility verification, denial process management, accounts receivable management and revenue cycle management. The deliverable of this work group will be an ambulatory addendum to the original white paper. Work group calls are the last Wednesday of each month at 11 am EST. Individuals interested in joining these work groups can contact Holly Gaebel, coordinator, healthcare information systems.

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Viewpoint: Risk Analysis—The Impact of Adopting and Implementing ICD-10 and 5010 Code Sets

In August, HHS announced proposed regulations to replace the ICD-9-CM code sets now used to report healthcare diagnoses and procedures with greatly expanded ICD-10 code sets, effective Oct. 1, 2011. In a separate proposed regulation, HHS has proposed adopting the updated X12 standard, Version 5010, and the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs standard, Version D.0, for electronic transactions, such as healthcare claims.  Click here for the full report on both proposed rules.

We posed the following questions to a few of our stakeholders: What do you anticipate to be the major area of impact in adopting and implementing ICD-10 and 5010 within your organization? Will your software vendors include these upgrades as part of their annual software upgrade, or will either one of these compliance efforts require expense above and beyond your anticipated support fees? Is all or part of these two efforts addressed within the “federal and state” clauses in your software contracts?  We ran a few responses in the November 08 Financial Edge. Here is another perspective on the subject:

Hospital executives and IT vendors recognize that the ICD-9-CM classification system does not have the necessary granularity for reporting and analyzing their data or achieving interoperability.  The transition to ICD-10-CM will improve the level of granularity of diagnosis codes, yet it alone will not facilitate interoperability among health information systems. To reach that goal, medical terminologies will have to be standardized. Some organizations are already making progress in this area. For example, the Certification Commission for Healthcare IT (CCHIT) now includes the ability to exchange data using clinical standards such as SNOMED CT, LOINC (for labs), and RXNORM (for drugs) among its criteria for certifying electronic health record products. As the healthcare industry looks at what will be required to switch to ICD-10-CM, it should also take this opportunity to incorporate these clinical nomenclature standards into the process changes, application updates, and reporting requirements that this new classification system will entail.

—George Schwend, President and CEO, Health Language Inc.

Looking ahead to the January 09 Viewpoint, our topic will be:

The Impact from Bank-Developed RCM Products and Services  

Earlier this month, SunTrust Banks Inc., in conjunction with Milwaukee-based Metavante Corp., launched a healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) solution. This online self-service tool offers healthcare providers the ability to manage the entire lifecycle of a claim—from initial eligibility inquiry to claim submission/status check and ultimately, receipt of payment automatically reconciled to an individual claim. Headquartered in Atlanta, SunTrust Banks Inc. is one of the nation’s largest banking organizations, serving consumer, commercial, corporate and institutional clients.

What is the potential impact from banks expanding their role in the healthcare finance market by developing their own RCM products and services? How might this expansion affect providers and vendors?  

Click here to submit a 150-word editorial outlining your perspectives on Bank-Developed RCM Products and Services. Submissions are due by close of business on Monday, January 12th.

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Advocacy Update—Make Your Voice Heard.......Host a Health IT Discussion for the Obama-Biden Administration

President-Elect Barack Obama has made it clear that health reform is a top priority—not only because all Americans deserve quality, affordable care, but because it is essential to getting the economy back on track. Per an opportunity created by the Obama-Biden Transition Team, HIMSS is encouraging members to host a healthcare-focused community discussion in their homes. Convening between December 15 and 31, Americans hosting these community discussions will help the transition team develop appropriate healthcare policy recommendations. Community discussions on healthcare IT will ensure the Transition Team has input and ideas from your colleagues and industry experts in your region of the country. To show President-Elect Obama’s commitment, Health & Human Services Secretary-elect Tom Daschle, leader of the Transition's Health Policy Team, will be attending one of these meetings in person. Sign up today. Click here for more details.

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Nominations Open for 7th Annual CEO IT Achievement Award

The annual CEO IT Achievement Award, presented by Modern Healthcare and HIMSS, recognizes one or more healthcare industry CEOs who demonstrate leadership and commitment to using information technology to advance their healthcare organization's strategic goals. The Call for Nominations for the 7th Annual CEO IT Achievement Award is open through midnight CST this Friday, December 19. Nominate your CEO to join this elite group of award winners.

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