On behalf of BESLER Consulting, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  As we celebrate our 22nd year serving the healthcare community, we also want to thank all of our loyal clients for the opportunities that you have provided us to work with your organizations and staffs in achieving great things.  We recognize that one size does not fit all and that it is only with a thorough understanding of our clients' needs that we can most effectively assist in creating unmatched solutions.  The BESLER team prides itself on partnering with our clients to work collaboratively in developing client-specific solutions, and we look forward to continuing to do so in 2009.

In these challenging economic times, it is imperative that every healthcare provider closely evaluates its operations and opportunities in order to remain competitive and thrive so that it can continue to serve its community.  There is no more important time than now to ensure that business processes are functioning effectively and that no dollar goes uncollected.  Every aspect of operations impacting financial performance must be evaluated to ensure optimization, whether it be the entire revenue cycle, specific reimbursement issues such as DSH or Medicare Bad Debt, or coding and clinical documentation functions.  BESLER is here to assist your team in achieving the critical objective of solid financial performance and in identifying cash flow opportunities that will improve your bottom line.

At the same time, we all can certainly agree that we cannot allow quality of care to be impacted by a downturn in the economy.  High quality care is something that every provider constantly strives for and is not willing to sacrifice.  In addition, the reporting of quality indicators can have a potentially greater impact on payment as Medicare and other payers base portions of reimbursement on the submission and achievement of certain quality metrics.  These trends are likely to continue, and our experienced and talented Accreditation and Clinical Services Team can help you in assuring that your quality and accreditation goals are attained.

As always, BESLER Consulting is seeking new ways to be of greater value to our clients.  This takes the form of not only bringing new ideas to the table but also of evaluating and improving upon existing operations to ensure the best outcomes.  For example, we are able to not only assist providers with gaining participation in the 340B Drug Discount Program but also with internal operations that impact the level of savings achieved.  Our service offerings also include comprehensive operational and financial assessments of existing clinical service areas and related strategic planning.

In this edition of The BEACON you will find the following topics:

Accreditation & Clinical Services
"The Buck Stops Here" discusses the newly revised 2009 Leadership standards for organizational leadership, and explains the responsibilities and accountabilities of the Chief Executive Officer and their medical staff, to ensure that patient safety is at the top of their priority list.  

Our Accreditation & Clinical Services team has been approved as a provider of continuing nursing education by the New Jersey State Nurses Association, an accredited approver, by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Commission on Accreditation.

Revenue Cycle
"Ensuring Compliance in Medicare Post Acute Transfer Recovery" focuses on how facilities should never compromise its' compliance when carrying out underpayment recoveries.

Employee Spotlight

I am pleased to announce two great additions to the BESLER Team.  Mary Devine has joined the organization as a senior manager in the revenue cycle group, and Ju'anese Williams also joins us as a manager for the chargemaster/coding group.

We appreciate your taking the time to read our publication, and I hope that the articles in this issue are of value to you.  If you have any suggestions for future articles, or other comments or questions, I would like to hear from you.  I can be reached at bsherin@beslerconsulting.com

Very truly yours,
Brian P. Sherin, FHFMA
President & CEO

BESLER Consulting