UMass Medical School’s Center for Health Care Financing to Provide Medicaid Claiming Services for Washington State
By Dennis Nealon; Web site, August 30, 2011 http://chcf.umassmed ... ing-servic
UMass Medical School’s Center for Health Care Financing to Provide Medicaid Claiming Services for Washington State
August 30, 2011
WORCESTER, Mass. — The Center for Health Care Financing at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has entered into a five-year $3.75 million contract with the state of Washington to provide consulting services for random moment time study implementation and administrative claiming.
The Center for Health Care Financing has developed an advanced web-enabled application to help states complete random moment time studies. A random moment time study documents how personnel spend their time performing certain health-related services and administrative activities, so states can use that information to submit accurate claims for those activities for federal reimbursement.
Currently, Washington uses a variety of tools to complete time studies. Under the terms of this contract, the Center for Health Care Financing will employ their web-enabled random moment time study system to centralize and simplify the current administrative process for the state. A key advancement: the system documents workers’ functions and time spent performing the delivery of health care services to particular groups of Medicaid members, as well as Medicaid administrative activities. The Center for Health Care Financing will also provide other administrative claiming support, including training and reporting.
The time study services will be provided to the state Medicaid agency and department of health, 33 local health jurisdictions, and 126 school districts in Washington.
“The goal is to make a major impact through simplification,” said Teresa Pastore, the Center for Health Care Financing’s senior associate for school-based programs and local initiatives. “Ultimately, the claiming and time study process overall is streamlined and the state is able to realize substantial cost reductions while delivering appropriate health care coverage.”
In its brief 15-year existence, the Center for Health Care Financing has built a portfolio of public clients by identifying savings opportunities and enhancing operations, while offering a scope of services that surpasses what many other vendors nationally offer. This has included developing services and technology tools to help states and local entities determine which Medicaid activities would be eligible for federal reimbursement. For example, since establishing a school-based claiming team more than a decade ago, the Center for Health Care Financing has helped local governments in multiple states reclaim approximately $750 million in federal reimbursement.
About the University of Massachusetts Medical School
The University of Massachusetts Medical School, one of the fastest-growing academic health centers in the country, has built a reputation as a world-class research institution, consistently producing noteworthy advances in clinical and basic research. The Medical School attracts more than $255 million in research funding annually, 80 percent of which comes from federal funding sources. The mission of the Medical School is to advance the health and well-being of the people of Massachusetts and the world, through pioneering education, research, public service and health care delivery. Commonwealth Medicine, the Medical School’s health care consulting division, provides a wide range of care management and consulting services to government agencies and health care organizations. For more information, visitcommed.umassmed.edu.
About the Center for Health Care Financing
The Center for Health Care Financing, part of the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Commonwealth Medicine health care consulting division, was founded in 1996. Distinguished by its research focus and partnerships with public human service agencies, the Center gives Massachusetts and other states a high-performing and less expensive public option for a broad range of third-party liability, benefit coordination, federal revenue maximization, program integrity, and revenue operations activities. For more information, visit commed.umassmed.edu/financing.