An interview with Marilee Benson
Sage eBrief sat down with Marilee Benson, VP, Strategic Markets, Community Health at Sage to talk about some of the unique challenges that Community Health/Non-Profit centers face and how the recently released Sage Intergy CHC is designed to manage these challenges more efficiently.
Marilee, You’re here to talk with us because you have great news for Community Health Centers, right?
Yes. I’m so pleased to announce that Sage Intergy CHC is available, along with Sage Intergy V5.5. This system offers the complete solution that our Community Health customers really need, particularly in light of the new federal incentives for HIT investment (HITECH).
Why was it important to add CHC functionality to Sage Intergy?
We knew that moving to a fully integrated Practice Management and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system was going to be important to Community Health Centers for a variety of reasons. For the past several years, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has increased the amount of clinical data included in the annual UDS (Uniform Data System) report and billing requirements just keep getting more complex.
In addition, we’ve seen an increase in Federal grant money for HIT (Health Information Technology) investment and now the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes additional funding for Community Health Centers to encourage the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR). Sage Intergy EHR is a proven, CCHIT certified EHR solution with tools to help providers manage care for their chronically ill patients, an important requirement contained in many grants. Adding CHC functionality to our already robust Sage Intergy Suite (practice management plus integrated EHR) gives Community Health Centers a fully integrated system that can handle the complex billing and federally mandated clinical data reporting requirements for Federally Qualified Health Centers. Most importantly, it is a tool they can use to expand access to the communities they serve.
So, Sage Intergy CHC offers the functionality that FQHCs really need today?
Yes, it is designed to make it much simpler to manage sliding fee schedules, Medicare and Medicaid Clinic rates, Wrap Rates and billing multiple payers at the same time. Standard CHC reports include the UDS report, FPAR (Family Planning Annual Report) and OSHPD (Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development). Some of our existing systems support these features, but may be fairly complex to set up and maintain.
When we developed Sage Intergy CHC we worked with our existing clients to find the best and most efficient way to support the required CHC features. Sliding fee schedules is a great example. In our legacy solutions, and in many of our competitor’s systems, sliding fee schedules are handled as an ‘insurance plan’. This isn’t the best solution. Our customers need a system where sliding fees are handled as a completely separate function. They need a system that is easy to setup and maintain, is flexible, and takes less time to setup and manage.
Another challenge for FQHCs and federally funded Rural Health Clinics is when multiple insurance companies need to be billed for the same visit. For example, sometimes Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B both need to be billed for the same date of service. CHC’s need an auto-insurance assign feature that will automatically bill the right insurance plan based on the business rules set up by the practice. This should be done real time and not require additional data entry or ‘batch’ processes to be run by the staff. This increases billing accuracy and saves time. Hopefully, saving the staff time means more patients can be reached.
So, Sage Intergy CHC takes the 'complex' and makes it simple'?
Absolutely, that is the fundamental difference between Sage Intergy CHC and other solutions. As an example, UDS reporting is much simpler and incorporates the required demographic data, visit data and clinical data in a single report. Along with increased simplicity, we’ve added more flexibility. There’s considerable variability between Community Health Centers—they don’t all have the same business rules. One center might want to set up a minimum visit amount for X-Ray services to help offset the cost of supplies. Clinics may vary these business rules by service location. Sage Intergy CHC makes it simple to setup and manage the varied billing policies of Community Health Centers, by service type and by location.
Speaking of UDS reporting, it can be a challenge to change systems in the middle of a UDS reporting year. Do you have a solution for that?
Good question. Many clients have that concern. We offer a special conversion process that reconciles the two systems so that our customers can easily complete their UDS report in their first year.
How can Community Health Centers get more information about Sage Intergy CHC and what this new option means to them?
First, they should know that Sage Intergy CHC is now fully released along with Sage Intergy V5.5. Additionally, there is information on the Sage Intergy CHC page of our website. For one-on-one help, they can complete the Request Information form and one of our CHC representatives will provide them with the specific information that they need.
Thanks for a sharing this exciting news with us and for pinpointing the CHC challenges that can be addressed.
It was my pleasure. We’re very committed to addressing the needs of our clients and being an important partner for them as they formulate their Healthcare Information Technology strategy.
