Jun 19, 2018 | News, Operational Outcomes, Release of Information, Uncategorized
Date: July 11th, 2018 | 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST
Presenters:
Laurie Fiore, RHIA
General Manager CDI/Care Coordination/UR/HIM, NCH Healthcare System
General Manager, Client Revenue Cycle, nThrive
Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA
President, Kloss Strategic Advisors, Inc.
Health systems are facing ever-growing challenges in engaging patients in the management of their health information. Whether a lack of computer literacy with patients or an inefficient medical records request process, these are the type of issues that must be alleviated to better engage patients with their overall health. HIM can play an active role in removing these barriers, by putting in place initiatives within their organizations for advancing patient access.
During this webinar, Laurie Fiore, General Manager CDI/Care Coordination/UR/HIM of NCH Healthcare System and Linda Kloss, President of Kloss Strategic Advisors will showcase how HIM is implementing solutions that streamlines patients’ access to health information and thus improving overall engagement and satisfaction.
Learning goals:
• Discuss the importance of proactive strategies enabling patient access to health information.
• Understand the drivers and goals for NCH Healthcare System’s focus transforming patient access.
• Review the operational challenges and solutions used by NCH Healthcare System to improve access as part of overall release of information.
• Consider how HIM can assist with patients’ access, to help better manage their health information.
Approved for 1 AHIMA CEU Credit: Management Development
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Mar 13, 2018 | Compliance & Regulations, News, Release of Information, Uncategorized
Date: April 3rd, 2018 | 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm EST
Presenters:
Barbara Beckett, RHIT, CHPS
System Privacy Officer for Saint Luke’s Health System, Kansas City
Jon Neiditz, JD
Cybersecurity, Privacy & Data Governance Co-Leader, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA
President, Kloss Strategic Advisors, Inc.
Compliance is often defined in terms of meeting current regulations. Regulatory compliance is necessary but no longer sufficient. Today’s privacy and security risks are changing too rapidly and regulations don’t cover the range of issues that confront you as a health information steward. This webinar offers a risk management approach to help you address privacy and security risks inherent in access and disclosure management.
An expert faculty panel will discuss techniques for risk assessment, a critical tool for boosting compliance, using practical case studies. They will suggest key actions you can take now to improve overall trustworthiness of your organization’s information disclosure function.
Learning goals:
- Understand compliance in terms of risk assessment, risk reduction and mitigation
- Consider specific disclosure management risk situations and effective ways to manage them
- Assess skills to boost the risk management capabilities of your release of information team
- Leverage your risk management results to help educate others
Approved for 1 AHIMA CEU Credit: Privacy and Security
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Feb 19, 2018 | News, Uncategorized, Verisma Company Updates
Move Made to Accommodate Rapid Growth
ALEXANDRIA, VA. – Feb. 19, 2018 – Verisma Systems, Inc., opened expanded offices in Syracuse, NY, on Thursday, Feb. 15, to accommodate recent and anticipated growth. The 13,000-square-foot facility currently houses 48 employees, with about 40 additional hires planned in upcoming months.
Verisma is the premier provider of technology-assisted disclosure management services and solutions, and posted 60 percent growth in its new client roster last year. Employees in the new Syracuse office include release-of-information (ROI) specialists, as well as customer service and quality assurance professionals.
“We are seeing a significant shift in how health care approaches disclosure management and release of information,” said Verisma CEO Marty McKenna. “Compliance and quality are increasingly important, and leaders realize that automated solutions, like those Verisma offers, can increase efficiency and accuracy compared to a historically manual process. We are adding highly qualified staff to ensure our clients achieve the outcomes they are looking for.”
The company’s flagship product, Verisma Release Manager™ (VRM), delivers next-generation technology with highly trained teams of ROI, IT, legal and business experts to facilitate the secure electronic exchange of patient information. It features integrated HIPAA guidance and compliance review support to significantly reduce the chance of errors, as well as an advanced workflow engine, and a comprehensive analytics dashboard for full oversight, transparency and accountability into the ROI process. It also includes Verisma Request App, the industry’s first on-line, self-service tool designed to improve the overall request experience for patients and their representatives.
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
Dec 19, 2017 | News, Uncategorized, Verisma Company Updates
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
Nov 6, 2017 | Uncategorized
Date: December 13th, 2017 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST
Presenters:
Heidi Hale, RHIA, Release of Information Manager, Saint Luke’s Health System
Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, President, Kloss Strategic Advisors, Inc.
Today, Release of Information (ROI) practices are inconsistent in many health system areas. Hospital ROI may be uniform and compliant; however, ambulatory, home care, and other settings use inconsistent, ad hoc methods. These siloed ROI practices are risky and costly. With growing volumes and request types, reduced revenue, and new compliance risks, fragmented ROI is no longer adequate. Health systems need a solution that automates ROI across the enterprise.
During this presentation, Heidi Hale, Release of Information Manager at Saint Luke’s Health System and Linda Kloss, President of Kloss Strategic Advisors will provide a real world example of how HIM spearheaded a successful ROI transformation project, migrating from fragmented to unified in less than a year.
Join the webinar to learn how the HIM department led:
- The successful migration from siloed to enterprise ROI in a compressed timeframe
- The automation of their ROI workflow and aligned people, policy, processes, and technology across the enterprise
- The expansion of secure patient access to health data – while advancing compliance with the 2016 HHS Patient Access guidance and Saint Luke’s goals and values
- An effective cross-functional team collaboration and initiative to advance system-level change
Approved for 1 AHIMA CEU Credit: Management Development
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Oct 24, 2017 | Blog, Information Sharing, Uncategorized
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)
