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Baptist Health System of Alabama Uses Precyse Solutions to Avoid 20% Coder Productivity Loss By Addressing New DRG System Early

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 October 2007, 09:00 CDT

WAYNE, Pa., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Precyse Solutions, the leader in driving peak performance within HIM departments, today announced its success in assisting Baptist Health System (BHS), one of the largest healthcare systems in Alabama, in their effort to prepare for the pending Medicare severity adjusted diagnosis related groups (MS-DRGs) effective October 1, 2007. BHS estimates that they prevented a 10-20% coding productivity loss, which equates to significant dollars in delayed cash flow to the system, by addressing the new MS-DRGs early.

When the Alabama Hospital Association announced in May CMS's proposal to implement 745 new MS-DRGs, BHS, located in the greater Birmingham area, found itself faced with a difficult challenge in the HIM departments of all of its hospitals: the pressing need to assess preparedness for the new MS-DRGs and sufficiently educate every medical record coder in the system in a timely fashion, but without corporate resources to do so. To successfully address the proposed MS-DRGs, coders had to be educated and trained in order to effectively handle the new coding guidelines and regulations.

"We saw the new MS-DRG regulations as potentially causing the largest wave of negative financial impact to our system since 1983, the year DRGs were implemented and the entire payment system for reimbursement to hospitals was changed," said Rhonda Childress, RHIT, Manager of Clinical Revenue (COB), Baptist Health System of Alabama. "We were neither prepared nor equipped with the proper resources to handle the coding workload that would accompany the proposed MS-DRG regulation changes. Precyse significantly changed our position from one of weakness to strength."

"Hospitals are facing a huge wave of potential negative impacts to their financial performance because of these new regulatory changes," said Rob Healy, President of Precyse Solutions. "Our coding audits provide a way for hospitals to evaluate the amount and level of training that will be required to address the new MS-DRGs, and our education programs are tailored to meet these group and individual needs. The unique combination of audit and education services offered by Precyse will help to alleviate the projected negative financial impact expected to hit hospitals in October."

Precyse provides hospitals with a comprehensive solution to manage coding, regulatory compliance and reimbursement and delivers audit and education services to address the new MS-DRG regulations. Precyse's audits evaluate data quality, coding compliance and documentation to improve accurate coding and grouping assignment. Once the initial readiness audit is completed, Precyse provides a formal, detailed report of findings and recommended solutions and a cost/impact analysis in an exit conference with hospital management.

About Precyse Solutions

Precyse Solutions is the leader in driving peak performance within HIM departments. The Precyse Performance Benchmark measures key performance indicators of HIM departments against industry standards to determine areas of strength and needed improvement. Precyse's services support best practices in multiple areas including: remote and on-site coding, transcription, audit and education, cancer registry, consulting and interim/long-term management services. For more information, please visit http://www.precysesolutions.com/ .

Precyse Solutions

CONTACT: Shannon Roulston for Precyse Solutions, +1-610-934-7570,shannon@0to5.com

Web site: http://www.precysesolutions.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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