Dec 19, 2017 | News and Events
Disclosure Management leader expands footprint; builds development, quality, service teams
ALEXANDRIA, VA. – Dec. 19, 2017 – Verisma Systems, Inc. will post a 60 percent increase in new client acquisitions for 2017, according to CEO Marty McKenna. The company likewise reports 98 percent client retention.
To support ongoing growth and ensure an exceptional client experience, Verisma significantly increased staff this year.
“It has been an incredible year for us,” McKenna says. “We are grateful to our long-standing clients for their loyalty and excited to welcome so many new organizations—including several large, complex health systems – to the Verisma family.”
The growth can be attributed to Verisma’s commitment to technology-assisted disclosure management across the health enterprise, McKenna adds. “We’ve automated and added quality control to a highly manual process. Our technology streamlines the release-of-information process, supports a stronger revenue cycle, and increases both staff and patient satisfaction.”
The company’s flagship product, Verisma Release Manager™ (VRM), delivers next-generation technology with highly trained teams of release of information (ROI), IT, legal and business experts to facilitate the secure electronic exchange of patient information. It features integrated HIPAA guidance and compliance review support, as well as an advanced workflow engine, quality assurance to reduce errors, and an analytics dashboard for full transparency and accountability into the ROI process.
Fueling the company’s success this year was the expansion of Verisma Request Application™ (VRA), a self-service solution that enables patients and proxies to request medical records online, and the introduction of Verisma Spotlight™. Enhanced VRA functionality allows internal requestors, commercial health plans and attorneys to benefit from convenient self-service options. Spotlight helps clients respond effectively to requests for protected health information that might pose a risk to their organizations – court-ordered subpoenas, for example, which often represent tight turnaround times.
To support its rapid growth, Verisma expanded its development, client services and quality assurance teams in recent months as well. The company anticipates adding 55 percent more associates by early 2018.
Verisma’s progress has likewise enabled the company to support clients by engaging with industry leaders, adds McKenna. Linda Kloss MA, RHIA, FAHIMA, president of Kloss Strategic Advisors and former CEO of AHIMA, serves at the company’s strategic advisor, for example, and Deven McGraw, former deputy director for health information privacy at the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), was featured as the keynote speaker at Verisma’s Disclosure Management Summit in May 2017.
“These relationships allow us to share insights into industry trends,” McKenna says. “Plus, they open doors for clients to learn about best practices and how to earn a seat at the table when their organizations consider the future of health information management.”
About Verisma
Verisma is a health information technology provider focused on delivering unparalleled Disclosure Management solutions to the healthcare industry. The company’s flagship automation system, Verisma® Release Manager (VRM), is utilized by well-known healthcare organizations nationwide. VRM automates workflow to improve turnaround times, reduce errors and drive down costs – effectively automating medical records release while delivering comprehensive release audit capabilities. It is the only release technology with integrated HIPAA guidance and compliance review support. For additional information, please visit our website at www.verisma.com, call 866-390-7404 or email solutions@verisma.com.
Media Contact:
Elizabeth Glaser
Phone (770) 317-8831
Elizabeth@verisma.com
Oct 24, 2017 | News and Events
Exploring Driver #5 of the “5 Things You Must Know Now About Release of Health Information”
By: Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA
People are becoming better informed about their rights and the value of information to inform health and healthcare decisions. Increase in personal health spending is one reason consumers are becoming better informed. So is the growing understanding that it’s wise to be knowledgeable and involved in one’s health and healthcare decisions. Release of Information (ROI) teams see this trend firsthand with the growing number of requests for records from patients.
ROI is on the front line in helping patients become smart health information consumers. Patient requests will continue to increase and they will expect a reasonable customer service experience in requesting and obtaining records. Those responsible for ROI should be monitoring changing requirements, exploring best practices and planning for innovation in a future-focused way.
Earlier blogs examined the value of standardizing ROI across the health care enterprise to improve quality and compliance. Enterprise ROI also improves customer satisfaction and contributes to an organization’s patient engagement objectives. Regardless of whether the patient initiates a request at the physician’s office or hospital, the request process should be the same and the patient should be able to secure the requested information without going from site to site. Verisma clients are realizing quantifiable improvement in customer satisfaction, improved compliance, accuracy, and cost management by deploying ROI technology and consistent policy and process across the enterprise. If full standardization is not possible for your organization, use ROI technology to unify the process as fully as possible and plan to further centralize over time.
The next wave of innovation will be self-service functionality enabling patients and other authorized requestors to request medical records via web at their convenience. There will be no need to stand in line or to fill out a paper form. Done well, self-service request apps use state of the art security, identity verification, and preserve a record of transactions. As with enterprise ROI, Verisma clients are now introducing self-service into ROI thereby helping patients gain access to health information while also stepping up security and accountability.
Patients may want ease of access to their information, but they don’t want to trade off their privacy rights to gain it. Recent research found that 49% of US online adults are concerned about the privacy of their healthcare information when using on line tools.[1] On line request apps must meet HIPAA requirements and maintain a high bar for identity management and the accommodation of patients’ disclosure preferences. If implemented properly, request apps can help educate patients in the exercise of their rights process. ROI teams can do a great deal to help educate patients about their rights, and a valuable source of educational materials is with HHS.[2] Proactive education about privacy rights and your organization’s practices benefits all.
HIM managers should evaluate the request process from the patients’ perspective.
- What data are available on volume of requests at various provider settings across the network?
- How similar or dissimilar is the patient experience at various settings?
- How does staff in various settings respond to a set of “test” questions that patients might pose that require working knowledge of HIPAA privacy regulations?
- How can customer facing processes be improved through greater standardization, through technology, education and request apps?
This is our final post in the “5 Things You Must Know Now About Release of Health Information” series. Should you have any comments or questions please e-mail us at solutions@verisma.com.
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[1] Khatibloo, F., Forester Research in testimony before the NCVHS, September 13, 2017, (https://www.ncvhs.hhs.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Sep-13-@115pm-Khatibloo-Beyond-HIPAA-Statement.pdf)
[2] Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/guidance-materials-for-consumers/index.html)
Oct 4, 2017 | News and Events
New solution flags predefined patients, transactions early in disclosure management workflow to help organizations manage high-risk requests efficiently and effectively
ALEXANDRIA, VA. – Oct. 4, 2017 – Verisma Systems, Inc., announced the launch of a new product, Spotlight, designed to help clients respond effectively to requests for protected health information that might pose a risk to their organizations.
Disclosure management is a sensitive process under any circumstance. But specific requestors or transactions – such as court-ordered subpoenas, VIP requests, and those made by irate patients or families engaged in child custody proceedings – may carry additional risk. Spotlight utilizes organization-determined rules and conditions to automatically flag these requests, alerting appropriate staff and triggering cross-departmental checklists to ensure the requests are processed correctly.
“Health information management leaders tell us 90% of the sleep they lose can be traced back to a mere 10% of the requests their teams handle,” says Marty McKenna, CEO of Verisma. “We’ve designed Spotlight to virtually eliminate those sleepless nights. We identify potentially risky requests almost as soon as they are made so they can be handled appropriately before it’s too late.”
Spotlight automatically identifies requests based on criteria such as specific request reasons, requestors and days-until-date-due. Flags may also be activated manually. Leaders can add an editable protocol checklist, which documents steps completed and by whom, with a date/time stamp. Spotlight auto-generates management reports of all flagged transactions, and integrates with Verisma’s User Tasks & Notification feature to ensure all appropriate personnel are aware and involved.
Phase 1 deployment of Verisma Spotlight will focus on two categories of high-risk disclosure management clients have identified as their greatest challenges:
- Court-ordered subpoenas for information, which often represent tight turnaround times where lack of compliance could result in contempt-of-court charges and associated penalties;
- Attorneys who have become known as “high maintenance,” and require special attention to avoid disruption in normal workflow or threat of a lawsuit.
“Every HIM director I know struggles with these high-risk requests,” says Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA, president of Kloss Strategic Advisors and former CEO of AHIMA. “If we don’t identify them early enough in the process, they create a lot of headaches and can damage the organization. A tool to help us get ahead of these requests is worth its weight in gold.”
About Verisma
Verisma is a health information technology provider focused on delivering unparalleled Disclosure Management solutions to the healthcare industry. The company’s flagship automation system, Verisma® Release Manager (VRM), is utilized by well-known healthcare organizations nationwide. VRM automates workflow to improve turnaround times, reduce errors and drive down costs – effectively automating medical records release while delivering comprehensive release audit capabilities. It is the only release technology with integrated HIPAA guidance and compliance review support. For additional information, please visit our website at www.verisma.com, call 866-390-7404 or email solutions@verisma.com.
Media Contact:
Elizabeth Glaser
Phone (770) 317-8831
Elizabeth@verisma.com
Sep 28, 2017 | News and Events
Leader in automated disclosure management to make self-service available to requesters within client organizations, commercial health plans, attorneys
ALEXANDRIA, VA. – Sept. 28, 2017 – Verisma Systems, Inc., today announced plans to extend the functionality of Verisma Request Application (VRA), a self-service solution that enables patients and their proxies to request their medical records online 24/7/365. The company, an industry leader in technology-driven enterprise disclosure management, will develop functionality so internal requestors, commercial health plans and attorneys can benefit from similar self-service options.
“We consulted with clients and they sent a very clear message,” says Marty McKenna, CEO of Verisma. “They expect the same online access and convenience in professional transactions as in their personal lives. We have the technology and commitment to deliver, and will accelerate our plans to meet this emerging market need.”
Verisma will introduce functionality over the coming months that will enable each of the three expanded stakeholder groups to securely and easily request/receive records within applications and programs they use on a daily basis, according to Andrew McManus, Founder & Executive Vice President at Verisma. “Our objective is to make the request and release process convenient and seamless,” he says. “We will enable requesters to gain entry to VRA at the most logical point within their workflow while rigorously preserving a compliant release process.”
McManus says Verisma’s analytic tools indicate the most common disclosure requests are urgent in nature and typically support continuity of care. However, commercial health plans and attorney requests rank second and third in frequency, which drove the company’s decision to expand VRA to these specific users.
“We want to make requesters’ jobs and lives easier,” McKenna says. “These new features within VRA will certainly do that, while also allowing us to continue to exceed the expectations of our patient and proxy requestors.”
About Verisma
Verisma is a health information technology provider focused on delivering unparalleled Disclosure Management solutions. The company’s flagship automation system, Verisma® Release Manager (VRM), is utilized by well-known healthcare organizations nationwide. VRM automates workflow to improve turnaround times, reduce errors and drive down costs – effectively automating medical records release while delivering comprehensive release audit capabilities. It is the only release technology with integrated HIPAA guidance and compliance review support. For additional information, please visit www.verisma.com, call 866-390-7404 or email solutions@verisma.com
Media Contact:
Elizabeth Glaser
Phone (770) 317-8831
Elizabeth@verisma.com
Sep 6, 2017 | News and Events
Exploring Driver #4 of the “5 Things You Must Know Now About Release of Health Information”
By: Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA
This blog series on transforming release of health information has examined the increased demand for information, the need to mitigate risk and control to costs. We outlined the need for sound work process design supported by workflow technology as an essential requirement for ROI today. In this third blog, we explore the need to scale technology-enabled workflow from a single site—a hospital or clinic—to the enterprise.
Enterprise may seem a lofty word but it works well to describe the need to scale-up ROI. Enterprise refers to a business (the entire health system) or a project (managing access and disclosure of protected health information). It is the term customarily used to describe the software version needed to support a whole organization. A healthcare organization doesn’t purchase multiple copies of the single user version of Microsoft 10 to support the whole organization, it gets the enterprise version to save money and ensure that the whole team is securely working together on the same platform.
Best practice for ROI requires a uniform set of policies and procedures that are sanctioned for use throughout the organization. It requires that mechanisms are in place to ensure that the sanctioned policies and procedures are being applied wherever ROI occurs in the healthcare organization, whether in a medical practice, the ED, or a hospital. ROI can no longer be siloed, with each part of the enterprise handling requests and releases as it sees fit. A standardized approach is needed, as is a process for escalating issues for timely resolution. In today’s complex work environments it’s almost impossible to ensure uniformity in a decentralized process without the use of uniform workflow technology.
Many healthcare organizations are going a step further and centralizing all release of information because this approach offers greater opportunity to mitigate risk, control cost, and improve service to customers. They may do this in-house with their own staff or outsource all or part of the function. Again, what ensures uniform practice is the use of a common technology platform designed to guide compliant workflow that allows managers to track and trend processing and release quality and productivity. Many successful Verisma customers are demonstrating the tangible value of this approach. In fact, Saint Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, MO will address their results at the upcoming AHIMA 2017 Convention in LA (Monday, October 9th, 1-2 pm).
HIM managers may consider the following questions as they assess how best to reduce ROI cost and risk while improving service through enterprise-wide standardization:
- Can we map the current ROI practices across the enterprise? Where are requests for information being received and processed? Are current policies and processes well outlined and up-to-date? How do we measure how well they are being adhered to?
- What is the opportunity to centralize using technology-enabled workflow tools? How can we make the case for cost savings, improved compliance and better service? Whose support will be needed to effect this change?
- Given the organizations current capabilities, is it best to centralize through outsourcing, insourcing or a hybrid combination?
In our final post in the series, we will explore Driver #5 Enterprise ROI Improves Customer Satisfaction of the “5 Things You Must Know Now About Release of Health Information.” In the meantime, please send your questions or comments to solutions@verisma.com.
Aug 16, 2017 | News and Events
Reduce ROI Cost and Risk Through Sound Workflow Design and Consistent Execution
Exploring Driver #2 & #3 of the “5 Things You Must Know Now About Release of Health Information”
By: Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA
Increasing productivity is a central goal in today’s health care world. Increasing productivity involves improving output “task” time, speeding up. This is an important element, but for nearly all types of healthcare operations, productivity represents much more than speeding up. It’s not just how many records are coded per hour, it’s records coded per hour, while achieving accuracy benchmarks based on the type of record. Similarly, it’s not just volume of transcription output, but line or document output adjusted for error volume and value.
Healthcare organizations are embracing lean techniques to optimize clinical and administrative processes and six sigma techniques to reduce process variation and process defects. How should we describe and measure productivity for release and disclosure of health information? What are the essential workflow elements that should be considered in lean process design? What defects must be eliminated and measured?
Work process design involves six steps: Mapping the process, analyzing it, redesigning, acquiring resources, implementing and communicating change, and measuring elements of the process for continuous improvement. In mapping, analyzing and redesigning a process, look for and eliminate as much of the delay as possible—for the benefit of patients, other customers and those who manage the release processes. Delays can be breaks in the process for rework such as logging a request, retrieving records called for in the request, producing output, and billing the requestor. Delays may also be gaps between steps in the process, the handoffs that so often have negative impact on productivity. Rework and delays may also require seeking clarification to resolve uncertainty about the specifics of the request or the federal and state laws and regulations or organizational policies that guide how to fulfill them.
Verisma is transforming disclosure management by helping hospitals and clinics reduce process variation through an end-to-end technology-guided process-oriented approach. Verisma deploys user-friendly, yet sophisticated workflow tools to guide each step of the process while reducing delays with built-in compliance guidance. It automates the work of ongoing monitoring and process evaluating and it preserves a full record of work performed for compliance and transparency. When aggregated over time, the improved productivity based on reduced task time translates directly into tangible cost savings and intangible compliance risk avoidance.
The crux of productivity for disclosure management functions is aligning capabilities (technology and workflow tools) to well designed and executed processes performed by qualified staff and/or outsource partner, that are grounded in delivering value to customers and complying with regulations and policies. Measurements must take into account all elements for ongoing performance improvement.
Reducing ROI cost and risk through sound workflow design and execution should challenge HIM managers to consider the following:
- What are the steps in the end-to-end process? Where are the delays and breaks occurring and what are their root causes?
- Do we understand the customer value proposition for patient access? Are our processes optimized to deliver on them?
- Do our performance measures take in the capabilities, execution and outputs? How are they being used for ongoing improvement?
In our upcoming post, we will explore Driver #3 Enterprise Standardization Reduces Cost and Mitigates Risk of the “5 Things You Must Know Now About Release of Health Information.” As always, we encourage you to share your thoughts with us at solutions@verisma.com.
