PeaceHealth Physicians & Providers,
 | | Dr. Howard Graman |
The need for greater transparency in our group's financial performance was called out in the provider engagement survey.
It's an area we've been working on for several months, particularly since the arrival of the group's chief financial officer, Doug Watson, last summer. Our goal is to provide our practices the information and tools they need to ensure they receive--in a timely manner--the payment they're due for services rendered.
I want to bring you up to date on what the group has been doing. Doug and his team have developed and begun sharing regular reports with clinic leaders for both revenue cycle and coding/charge capture. Coders have also been providing on-site education support in each clinical area for the past several months.
Since implementing the reports and other measures, we've seen a number of improvements. Notably:
- since January
- unreconciled charges have gone down by 48%
- the number of 30+ day-old charges has dropped by 58%
- in the last six months,
- we've collected on 9% more revenue than quarter 1 of FY13
- administrative write-offs, as a percent of revenue, are down 18% for the fiscal year
(Coding reports can be found on the PHMG coding site; for revenue cycle reports, talk to your clinic manager.)
Compiling consistent, comparable data is pain-staking work. So is bolstering every step in the revenue cycle. Congratulations to everyone who has contributed to the success of these vital efforts, including clinic managers, providers and other caregivers as well as Doug, Sara Wert, Crystal Clack, Monica Wherry, Margo McCall and the coding charge capture team, Mary Kjemperud, Lindsay Hayward and Patient Financial Services staff.
We expect that with Epic (automatic dropped charges at the close of encounters and real-time work-queue reporting) and other support tools, the group will be in an even better position to monitor key performance indicators and make further improvements in the future.
Thank you for your support.
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New 2013 Algorithm
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A new diabetes algorithm is now available (2013 Diabetes Management Guidelines in Non-Pregnant Adults), updated according to the Standards of Care in Diabetes 2013 guidelines from the American Diabetes Association (ADA).
New for the 2013 algorithm:
- Blood pressure goal is changed from <130/80 to <140/90
- Extensive footnote in A1C column highlighting that less stringent goals (such as <8.0%) may be appropriate for specific sub-populations and the rationale for why our DM quality bundle A1C target is not <7.0%
- Overt CVD has been added as a separate column under Fasting Lipids (it was previously noted on the algorithm as a footnote)
- Follow-up frequency for patients not at LDL goal is now 12-weeks versus 6-weeks in the 2012 algorithm
Read the memo for more details.
Similar to last year, current thinking of the ADA expert panel can be summarized as: Be aggressive at meeting targets in the younger or more recently diagnosed individual and be more cautious, especially with multi-drug therapy in the elderly and those who already manifest complications of the disease.
We wish to thank Dr. Ralph Fillingame for his work on the 2013 diabetes algorithm.
The Diabetes algorithm and other PHMG guidelines, algorithms, and preventive guidelines can be found in the PeaceHealth Electronic Library: Order Sets, Protocols, & Guidelines/ PeaceHealth Order Sets & Protocols.
Please direct any questions or comments to David Killaby and/or Dr. Karen Sharpe.
Read diabetes algorithm memo
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