CRHC offers a variety of support services to strengthen your critical access hospitals operations, focus on compliance and dive deeper into quality improvement.
ADMISSION CRITERIA TRAINING CRHC offers Admission Criteria training which covers topics including differentiation between inpatient and outpatient admission status, documentation requirements to support the medical necessity of either type of stay, CMS RAC and two-midnight rule implications, patient/family perspective regarding admission status, and using resources to support decision-making.
BILLING & CODING TRAINING CRHC coordinates medical billing and coding training, specific to rural healthcare facilities, on an annual basis. The annual billing or coding training takes place in regional locations with the same topic and trainer at each location. Topics change each year, based on the needs of Colorado rural healthcare facilities. Based on the topics, these educational events may be a 1-day workshop or a 2-day boot camp.
BILLING & CODING EDUCATIONAL WEBINARS CRHC provides webinar recordings on topics relevant to rural healthcare coding and billing. Coding webinars approved by AHIMA and/or AAPC will offer 1 CEU for certified coders who attended the webinars live or watch the recording. Webinar details and on-line registration are posted on the CRHC website, under the “Events” tab. Webinar recordings are available under the “Resources” tab.
CLAIMS DATA SERVICES& REPORTS Through this preferred partner service, reports are available containing geographic specific claims data. Information in these reports includes Outpatient Outmigration for providers, public health agencies and others interested in patient migration patterns in and outside of their community, Drug Costs and Trends for non-profits, health plans, state agencies and public officials interested in understanding pharmacy spending in Colorado and Provider Market Analysis (by CPT4 medical procedure code) for health care providers and others interested in average market rates for services compared to Medicare. Customizable reports are also available.
COMPLIANCE TRAINING For this session, CRHC’s Senior Advisor will come to your facility to work with you on hospital compliance program needs. Areas of focus may include, but are not limited to, review, development, and improvement of your program plan, procedures, documentation, education and training, program evaluation, and risk assessments.
CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITAL FINANCIAL WORKGROUP
These quarterly webinars are appropriate for all CAH CEOs, CFOs, and other members of the CAH Financial/Business office team. Each webinar includes an educational topic as well as an overview and analysis of CAH Hospital Strength Index reports and open discussion.
CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITAL QUALITY DIRECTOR NETWORK Bi-monthly calls of the CAH Quality Network are facilitated by CRHC in addition to workshops twice annually. The Network provides an environment for best-practice sharing, updates, and education on a variety of quality improvement topics relevant to critical access hospitals.
CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITAL CONVERSION When considering conversion to critical access hospital status, there are steps hospital administration, board, and medical staff need to take to determine whether or not conversion is appropriate. CRHC provides consultation including educational presentations, financial feasibility studies, and assistance with community education.
FINANCE EDUCATION & TRAINING FOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Training for board of directors consists of an on-site half-day session which includes individualized site-specific information about financial statements, cost reports, Medicare and Medicaid payments and other pertinent information related to healthcare payment policy.
PEER REVIEW NETWORK Peer review is an effective and economical option for rural clinics and hospitals to improve patient care through identification of opportunities for improving the process and delivery of patient care. The service is a collaborative effort among rural facilities with reviews performed by other participating rural facilities in the state.
SWING BED MANUAL The Swing Bed Manual is a quick reference guide for critical access hospitals to better understand the Medicare regulations associated with Swing Bed patients. The Swing Bed Manual includes a Colorado CAH-specific section, a one-page reference guide, and FAQs on Medicare-specific billing.
SWING BED TRAINING CRHC offers comprehensive on-site or webinar training for providers on Medicare regulations and swing bed case scenarios. Swing bed training includes on-site training for hospital staff and is tailored to meet your specific needs.
THE CONSORTIUM HIT EDUCATIONAL WEBINARS CRHC provides a monthly webinar series on topics relevant to rural healthcare information technology and related topics such as HIE, HIPAA security/risk, Meaningful Use/QPP and more. Webinar details and on-line registration are posted on the CRHC website, under the “Events” tab.
UTILIZATION MANAGEMENT TRAINING All hospitals must have a utilization management/utilization review (UM/UR) plan that describes the process used to review all services provided by the institution and by the members of the medical staff. CRHC offers UM/UR webinars to ensure your facility has sound UM/UR practices in place.
UTILIZATION MANAGEMENT MANUAL
The Utilization Management Manual is a quick reference guide for critical access hospitals to better understand the Medicare regulations associated with Utilization Management.
EXCEL TRAINING This onsite data and Microsoft Excel training session for organization staff includes an overview and practice of the tools and function of Microsoft Excel, run charts, Pareto charts, control charts, and hands-on practice.
HARC DATABANK The Health Awareness for Rural Communities Databank (HARC) is the first database created solely to examine the dynamics of rural and frontier counties in Colorado. Through the use of quantitative measures, HARC includes over 400 health indicators, customizable reports, and infographs.
LEAN SIX SIGMA Consultation on Lean Six Sigma methods to improve quality and performance with a process such as medication administration. Hospitals select process to improve and will receive on-site and post-improvement coaching.
QUALITY HEALTH INDICATORS (QHi) BENCHMARKING TOOL The QHi Benchmarking Tool provides a cost-effective, user-driven benchmarking system for clinics, critical access hospitals and rural hospitals with fewer than 50 beds. The goal of QHi is to provide ways to improve practices by comparing quality measures with like facilities. As a user-driven, multi-state project, QHi is well-positioned to serve as a repository of in-formation on quality and performance nationwide.
Programs for Hospitals
CRHC supports critical access hospitals in a variety of ways so they can continuously focus on quality improvement.
iCARE
CRHC offers our flagship quality improvement program Improving Communications and Readmission (iCARE) to participating CAHs and their provider based clinic(s). iCARE is focused on strengthening interdisciplinary communication and enhancing patient and family engagement as a means to improve chronic disease management.
The Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP)
MBQIP is a quality improvement activity under the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) grant program of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). The goal of MBQIP is to improve the quality of care provided in critical access hospitals (CAHs), by increasing quality data reporting by CAHs and then driving quality improvement activities based on the data. This project provides an opportunity for individual hospitals to look at their own data, measure their outcomes against other CAHs and partner with other hospitals in the state around quality improvement initiatives to improve outcomes and provide the highest quality care to each and every one of their patients.
Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program (SHIP)
CRHC submits the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) SHIP grant every year, which supports specific projects for Colorado’s rural, under 50-bed hospitals. CRHC is excited to announce that the FY2019 Colorado SHIP Grant from HRSA will support a statewide collaborative project focusing on EMR Workflow and Charge Master Education and Training.
Resources for Hospitals
Quality Improvement Implementation Guide and Toolkit for CAHs
This guide and toolkit offers strategies and resources to help critical access hospital (CAH) staff organize and support efforts to implement best practices for quality improvement.
This crosswalk is intended to provide users with a basic understanding of quality reporting initiatives taking place on a national level involving CAHs, including: the lead organization and purpose of such initiatives, the measures used by each initiative and any overlap in measures across initiatives.
This guide is intended to help Flex Coordinators, CAH staff and others involved with MBQIP understand the measure reporting process. For each reporting channel, information is included on how to register for the site, which measures are reported to the site and how to submit those measures to the site.
