1 min read

[On-Demand Webinar] OIG Workplan: Your Key to SNF Compliance

By Prime Care Tech Marketing on Fri, Apr 21, 2017 @ 03:37 PM

In our recent webinar, "OIG Work Plan: Your Key to SNF Compliance," we partnered with Pathway Health Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Lisa Thomson to offer advice on how best to comply with the 2017 Officer of Inspector General (OIG) Work Plan. 

Objectives:

  • Identify 3 top compliance concerns related to Affordable Care Act (ACA)
  • Highlight 5 OIG Work Plan items that impact SNFs
  • Define 3 strategies to prevent Fraud, Waste and Abuse

If you missed it, be sure to take advantage of these resources:

 If you feel unprepared for OIG compliance, get in touch with our experts!

  • Prime Care Technologies – Elevate security, expedite IT needs and empower yourself to automate and oversee financial performance, claims processing, managed care, purchasing and workforce.
  • Pathway Health – Bring in the experts as consultants, educators or interim managers to assist with your post-acute care requirements. 
Topics: real-time reporting compliance SNF reporting and analytics OIG Office of Inspector General
3 min read

Providers Discover Hidden Treasures through Data Mining

By Prime Care Tech Marketing on Wed, Oct 03, 2012 @ 07:00 AM

data mining yields treasures of actionable knowledgeData mining represents wealth, a wealth of opportunity, action, and success. Directly put, data mining (the process of centralized data management and retrieval) helps LTC providers find hidden treasures of knowledge, not just data. Just as rare gems or precious minerals are only valuable when processed from the ore that is unearthed, so too is knowledge when refined from countless bytes of data. Refined data transformed into information becomes knowledge and knowledge – the power to act. Data mining, therefore, helps executives discover what is happening now, track trends, anticipate with some accuracy what may happen in the future, and explore the strengths of possible actions.

In real terms, providers today have the ability to mine their own data and, yes, to share the data and knowledge with others at practically a simple click of a button. They can view and act on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in real-time* and, based on the information collected, take action or create their own predictive models or what-if scenarios. Some vital KPIs, among others, include:

  • Census Information, such as actual-to-budget census by payer type
  • Admissions and Discharges trending, including admissions sources and discharge destinations, lengths of stay, and readmissions to hospitals
  • Labor information, including actual-to-budget as well as actual-to-flex budget (by which providers can determine staffing needs based on the actual census)
  • A review of overtime hours so that providers can schedule staff and minimize overtime pay
  • Cash and accounts receivable comparing actual payments to targeted collection dates by payer, also cash trending by payer, reconciliation of collections to bank statements, DSO, periodic aging reports
  • Regulatory reporting, such as the 671 report, detailed discharge reports, reports for uploading to other systems, such as AHCA’s Trend Tracker
  • Clinical  SNF and assisted living KPIs, including relevant trending

The strength of data mining for operators of multiple facilities lies in its ability to drill down from a consolidated dashboard view configured by the provider to the region, facility, department, individual employee, or resident. Administration of such a system is provider driven to determine who shall have access to what within the system.

A viable data mining system is responsive to the ever-changing long term care environment, such as data and information-hungry ACOs, remaining top of mind for hospital discharge planners by maintaining hospital readmissions at an acceptable level, involvement in policy-determining studies, or meeting HIT requirements (Stage 2 meaningful use) to be eligible for the federal electronic health-record financial incentive program.

Data mining is more than a curiosity; it is the Mother Lode of vital information in today’s health care environment. Talk to us during the AHCA/NCAL 63rd Annual Convention and Expo, booth #1317, or during the 2012 LeadingAge Annual Meeting and Exposition, booth #530,to discover for yourself how providers like you have benefited in real dollars from data mining using our primeVIEW business intelligence tool.

*Let’s talk about “real-time” for a moment. The term, real-time, can mean “without perceivable delay.” So, in this case, the data is processed as soon as it is received. How often is the data pulled? That is directly driven by the provider’s need to know. You could say that “real-time” reporting is driven by the need for “real-time” decision making. For example, labor hours require perhaps a greater frequency of reporting during a given day than collections or census. Our primeVIEW customers determine data pull frequency.

Topics: business intelligence Data Mining real-time reporting BI
3 min read

How to leverage cloud computing providers

By Prime Care Tech Marketing on Fri, Jun 01, 2012 @ 08:00 AM

how to leverage cloud computing providersYou’re about to make a major decision regarding clinical and financial software, recognizing the need to move into the next generation of applications. With competitive pressures, new reimbursement opportunities and restrictions, electronic medical records, health data and information interoperability, and quality care accountability, your team recognized that the status quo will not suffice. However, with a new clinical software application decision also comes the need to reexamine your IT infrastructure. To ignore that consideration, you run the risk of putting “new wine into (an) old (bottle)” and “the new wine doth burst the (bottle).” Cloud computing is the "new bottle of IT and continues to grow as a viable option that is cost effective and offers agility of service. It is scalable and helps you to focus on what you do best - operate your business. (Read our previous blog, How the Cloud can help you meet today’s opportunities more rapidly, for more details.) With virtualization leading the way, cloud computing affords businesses an entirely new IT paradigm. Assuming, cloud computing is your infrastructure of choice, how do busy executives, like you, best leverage cloud computing providers?

Cloud computing is a new world for many and changes the way businesses look at IT and how to use it. By entrusting the IT infrastructure to cloud computing providers or Cloud Services Providers (CSPs), like PCT, executives need to apply their well-developed management skills.

Because cloud computing offers on-demand and scalable solutions, executives are able to effectively apply such well-honed management skills as delegation, accountability, and oversight to this model. Start with the Master Services Agreement (MSA). The MSA not only addresses such issues and service features as security, infrastructure, data center, cloud computing service features, email hosting, and user support, among others, but it is a living, breathing document.

Here are three ways that you can effectively leverage you cloud computing provider of choice.
1.    Delegation – Effective delegation implies not only the handing off of certain tasks, but most importantly, the vision and supporting goals justifying those tasks. If you are too focused on the individual tasks identified and miss the synergy of how the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, opportunities will pass unseized. Share with your provider your company’s goals and objectives. Lay out a five year plan with your provider clearly outlining how you expect the CSP to help you meet your goals. Harness the CSP’s project management skills and expertise to fully capture the power of delegation.
2.    Accountability – Conduct regular accountability meetings using the MSA as a benchmark combined with your vision and the role the CSP is to play. Evaluate the services and projects, identifying road blocks and how to mutually bypass or remove them. This is a time for purposeful dialogue, discussion, decision, and redirection, if required. It reinforces that you are still in charge.
3.    Oversight – Now, the tack I am taking with this may be a little different than what you would otherwise expect. I strongly believe that IT’s purpose is to help you more effectively manage your operations in much better way than without IT. One of the best tools to give you the oversight you need is real-time data mining or dashboard reporting. Your CSP should have the skill set to build and deploy for you a digital dashboard that displays in real time such Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as labor, census, collections, RUGs (where appropriate), and others that are important to your company and its vision.

Cloud computing takes IT and businesses to the next level of performance. In truth, your cloud computing provider should be a member of your management team not just a vendor. Better phrased, you can more effectively leverage the power of cloud computing by employing the management skills set you already possess – delegation, accountability, and oversight.

What qualities are you looking for in a cloud computing provider?

Learn how providers use Business Intelligence to stay on top of their business. Download this free white paper.

How to stay on top of your business with BI

Topics: business intelligence real-time reporting cloud computing provider

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