Welcome to the latest edition of the BESLER Beacon.  We hope that you find this newsletter to be a continuing source of timely and useful information.

We are all experiencing, at some level, the impact of the economic downturn in both our personal and professional lives.  We can only hope that the efforts by the government to create economic stimulus, whether we agree with the specific approaches or not, will begin to turn things around.  Healthcare has been hit especially hard with the drop in patient volumes, increase in uncompensated care, patients delaying elective procedures, and the loss of investment income. 

BESLER Consulting prides itself on its products and services but, more than that, it is proud of its people.  Virtually every management guru will tell you that while effective processes and management techniques are crucial to any organization, it is ultimately the people that make up the organization that make the difference.  BESLER is comprised of expert healthcare professionals with a breadth and depth of experience and knowledge that is unmatched in the areas of reimbursement, revenue cycle, compliance, coding, operations and accreditation.  We recognize that these difficult times require renewed thinking and unique solutions.  One size does not fit all.  We welcome the opportunity to listen to your specific needs, and bring our expertise to the table to develop solutions to the problems that your unique healthcare organization is facing.

Many new challenges and opportunities are being presented to all of us these days as healthcare professionals.  The Recovery Audit Contractors (RACS) will be at your door very soon and this is just one of many approaches that Medicare, state Medicaid programs and other payers will be taking to “recover” payments that they allege were inappropriately made to providers.  They will not be going away so you must prepare and structure your operations to meet the challenge for the long term.  To get more information on one particular focus area, see the article in this issue on the challenges presented by one day stays.

While we used to say that every dollar counts, today every penny counts, and BESLER has a number of recovery services that can potentially bring cash into your institution.  These range from Medicare Transfer DRG and CMS 1011 program services to point of service collection programs that will help you prevent the proliferation of high deductible insurance plans from increasing your bad debt expense. 

In addition, we can assist your internal reimbursement team with services designed to ensure that your organization does not miss any dollar to which it is entitled.  Our Medicare DSH, cost report, IME/GME (see article in this issue) and wage index expertise can provide significant value in terms of making certain that your reporting, and ultimately your reimbursement, is all that it should be.  We can also provide assistance in analyzing and structuring your managed care contracts.

Hospital accreditation has long been associated with The Joint Commission, but there is now a new kid on the block, DNV (Det Norske Veritas) Healthcare.  DNV has been approved to deem hospitals in compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation and brings a different approach from, and alternative to, The Joint Commission.  DNV’s approach combines deemed status surveys with quality improvement. Our Accreditation staff is trained in DNV’s methods, and they are available to answer your questions or assist should you decide to make the transition.

Things keep changing but one thing remains the same; People make the difference.  BESLER’s approach of partnering our people with our client’s own healthcare professionals have solid, proven results.  If you would like to explore how we can be of assistance to your organization, please give us a call.  I wish each of you the very best as we move into summer and face the challenges before us.

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