Hospital Access Management – November 1, 2004

November 1, 2004

• Six Sigma process greatly increases New Jersey ED’s cash collections

  A thriving emergency department cash collection program is the latest manifestation of Marlton, NJ-based Virtua Healths use of an innovative quality assurance and process improvement strategy called Six Sigma.

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• Six Sigma teams define, measure, and analyze

  Its impossible to fully explain Marlton, NJ-based Virtua Healths emergency department (ED) cash collections project without discussing the multihospital health systems Six Sigma quality assurance program, officials there say.

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• Six Sigma advancement levels and training

  The term black belt, taken from the concepts of martial arts, describes an expertise level pertaining to Six Sigma.

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• ‘No right or wrong answer’ on call center functions

  The discussion of call centers that began in the October Hospital Access Management continues this month with some follow-up questions posed by Gillian Cappiello, CHAM, senior director of access services and chief privacy officer for Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago on staff training, balancing call workload, and other issues.

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• Labs don’t need MSP information

  Hospitals no longer are required to collect Medicare Secondary Payey information where there is no face-to-face encounter with a beneficiary, thanks to a recent clarification by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

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• News briefs

  Eight common factors were identified as critical for success in improving patient flow in the nations emergency departments in a report from the Urgent Matters Learning Network, a national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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• 2004 Salary Survey Results: Outsourcing, consulting opportunities on tap for well-prepared AM professionals

  Increases in outsourcing, the merging of health care organizations, and changes in the consulting business may equal some new opportunities for qualified access management professionals.

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• HIPAA Regulatory Alert: How to implement HIPAA without breaking the bank

  Thinking creatively, but not expensively, is the key to meeting HIPAA requirements with a limited budget, according to Maria Woods, vice president for compliance and regulatory affairs at Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York, who spoke at the Ninth Annual HIPAA Summit in September.

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• HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Medicare to make greater use of the Internet

  Medicare continues to work closely with contractors, providers, billing agents, clearinghouses, and software vendors to achieve HIPAA goals and will be making greater use of the Internet and working on implementation of electronic attachments to electronic medical records.

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• HIPAA Regulatory Alert: HIPAA enforcement aimed at achieving compliance

  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of HIPAA Standards staffer Dianne Faup says the agency has received more than 200 transaction/code set complaints, with some 58 still open at the time of her September presentation to the Ninth Annual HIPAA Summit.

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• HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Security rule guidance issued to covered entities

  Entities covered under the HIPAA security rule are not required to certify compliance with provisions of the rule, according to guidance issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

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• HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Journalists complain about HIPAA privacy restrictions

  The Radio-Television News Directors Association says all journalists, and particularly those working for electronic media, have been hampered in their work by actual HIPAA privacy requirements and by interpretations of those requirements by some people and organizations.

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• HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Guilty plea in first HIPAA privacy case

  A SeaTac, WA, man pleaded guilty in federal court to wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information for economic gain.

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• HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Civil money penalties rule extended

  The Department of Health and Human Services extended for one year the Sept. 16, 2004, expiration date for an interim final rule establishing procedures for imposition of civil money penalties on entities that violate HIPAA administrative simplification standards.

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