The recognized myth is that the world of legislative advocacy slows down during the summer - it's more than six months until the next General Assembly session; legislators are on vacation; and the fiery debates of Annapolis have cooled in favor of barbecues and beach trips.

You know far better, and so do those who are tasked with making Maryland a better place for hospitals to operate. With Memorial Day's unofficial kickoff of summer behind us, your MHA team is delving into several weighty issues over the next few months. Among them: 

• Assisting with Lt. Gov. Boyd K. Rutherford's Joint Committee on Behavioral Health and Opioid Use Disorders. Behavioral health, including substance abuse, is a pressing issue in Maryland, and hospitals will be a key component of any solutions that arise; that's why it's important to work with the lieutenant governor to develop a plan that is both effective and efficient.
• Convening MHA members to frame issues that need to be addressed by the new legislative committee, consisting of five senators and five delegates, that will look at Maryland's behavioral health needs.
• Convening a task force, per the bill that was passed in this year's session, to develop a comprehensive means to evaluate access to obstetrical care. This will lay the groundwork for another push next year for a No-Fault Birth Injury Fund, which can help keep malpractice lawsuits (and premium costs) in check and improve access for moms-to-be.
• Participating in a work group, led by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Office of the Attorney General, to explore ways to increase the state's Medicaid audit tools.
• Engaging with advocates of a national caregiver designation push, headed by AARP, to find common ground on an effort to help patients by identifying the right person to assist them with their care plan after they leave the hospital. 

There are several others, including: working to prevent the loosening of physician self-referral laws; developing guidelines for Hepatitis C screening; and creating a public awareness campaign for financial security freezes for infants, to name a few. The ideas we instill now in key decision-makers will pay dividends when session comes around. And the beneficiaries of this hard work are the patients and communities you serve.

With increasingly changing reimbursement models and high deductible health plans placing more payment liability with the patient, health systems must increase their focus on best practice registration and financial clearance to ensure up-front cash collections, reduce front-end denials and improve patient registration efficiencies to maintain patient satisfaction.

MedAssets Patient Access Solutions deliver front end performance expertise and automated workflows to ensure greater accuracy and efficiency in your financial clearance process, improve Medicare compliance and reduce the risk of potential fines. Patient Access Management drives accountability and productivity throughout your patient access areas through real time import of patient ADT data, prioritizing work lists and workflows, and automatic assignment of financial clearance activities and tasks to accounts. Staff gain easy access to crucial information regarding patient eligibility and benefits, which means patients receive accurate, easy-to-understand estimates for both the hospital and physician before services are provided. An ongoing ability to monitor results supports sustainable process improvement, denial avoidance, and increased accurate up-front collections.