By: Adam Abramowitz, Senior Manager, Sales and Marketing
CBIZ KA Consulting Services exhibited at this year’s HFMA Annual Conference at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee. Attendance was up over 20% from last year and a highlight was the HFMA event at the Grand Ole Opry.
The exhibit hall was busy this year. In particular, we spoke with a number of smaller and critical access hospitals regarding our Virtual Eligibility Counselor service that can help hospitals increase their number of completed Medicaid applications. We believe that two significant factors led to the high interest level from these organizations.
1. The Medicaid disenrollment process is a real concern. Hospitals will be losing a significant amount of Medicaid revenue unless patients are reenrolled.
2. Small hospitals are especially susceptible to staffing concerns regarding Medicaid eligibility. The loss of one key staff person at a hospital could significantly curtail their ability to do a thorough job in qualifying patients for Medicaid.
Another area of interest for many providers was coder evaluation audits. We spoke with many hospitals who were concerned with their coding quality, specifically as it related to their inpatient coders. They wanted to make sure that their staff was coding accurately, ensuring compliance and appropriate revenue capture. CBIZ’s vast experience with coding audits resonated with these attendees.
We also had several conversations regarding DRG downgrades/clinical validation denials. A number of hospitals were struggling with keeping up with the pace of the downgrades, which has affected their ability to appeal cases on a timely basis. Furthermore, hospitals wanted to wrap their arms around the root causes of these downgrades, with an emphasis on how they can improve their documentation going forward.
Overall, it was a successful conference for us, and we were pleased by the quality of conversations that we had at our booth. If your organization has any specific needs regarding Medicaid eligibility, coder evaluation audits or DRG denials and appeals, please let us know. Contact Adam Abramowitz at [email protected] or at 609-220-5627.