Spring Conference 2024
Event Details
- April 10-12, 2024
- 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
- Oaklawn Racing and Casino
Note: Links for Brochure, Registration & Handouts will work as soon as information is available on this event.
CPE SIGN-IN AND CERTIFICATES
To receive CPE credits, there will be electronic monitoring of attendance time and at least 70 % polling questions will be REQUIRED to be answered randomly throughout each session. CPE Certificates will be emailed to each participant following the meeting. Keep a copy of this program along with your certificate for your records.
*Registration Fee: $50 HFMA Member $125 Non-HFMA Member
*Deadline for registration and payment is February 22, 2021. REFUNDS AND CANCELLATIONS
If cancellations are received after February 22, 2021, the registration fee is not refundable. Registrants who do not cancel or fail to attend must pay the entire fee. Substitutions, however, are permitted. Registration forms and cancellations must be emailed to address below. Phone and voicemail are not valid forms of communication for cancellations. For more information regarding administrative policies such as complaint and refund, please contact Tami Hill at 501-316-1229 or arhfma@arkansashfma.org.
Conference Itinerary:
8:30 am – 9:45 am | 2021 Regulatory Update Part 1 – Lynda M. Johnson
- 10:00 am – 11:15 am | 2021 Regulatory Update Part 2 – Amie K. Alexander
12:15 pm – 1:30 pm | Best Practice Reporting for Clinics – Amy Graham, Opal Greenway
- 1:45 pm – 3:00 pm | Payer Denials: A Discussion on Prevention and Resolution – Megan Smith
3:15 pm – 4:30 pm | Managed Care Strategy Update – Ed Casteel
8:30 am – 9:45 am | Course RC2101
2021 Regulatory Update Part 1
CPE Credits: 1.5| CPE Type: Specialized Knowledge | Level: Basic | Prerequisites: None
Program Content: The first half of our February 2021 Regulatory Update, we will look to major regulatory updates on the horizon in light of changing federal guidance and a new administration in charge. Specifically, we will walk through changes made by the latest Stimulus Package (including changes to previous requirements put in place by the CARES Act and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, and to the 2021 Physician Fee Schedule), the latest reporting guidelines for funds received from the HHS Provider Relief Fund, and legal considerations you may need to be aware as we get closer to wide-spread vaccine distribution.
Learning Objectives: After attending this session, participants will be able to:
Recognize the significance of the latest requirements involving price transparency.
Understand latest reporting guidance for Provider Relief Funds.
Understand recent enforcement actions by OCR and what they mean for providers.
Recognize the legal framework and ethical considerations when considering a mandatory vaccine policy.
Lynda M. Johnson is a partner with FRIDAY, ELDREDGE & CLARK, LLP in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has practiced in the health law area since 1986 representing a wide variety of healthcare providers including hospitals, physicians, physician groups, nursing homes, and home health agencies. Her practice includes issues involved in Stark I and II and Anti-Kickback compliance, HIPAA Compliance, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement, corporate compliance issues, physician and hospital organization issues, managed care, health care and hospital law, long term care, and home health. She is a frequent speaker before affiliate groups of the Arkansas Hospital Association on areas of regulatory healthcare compliance and has written for the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s national publication “hfm.” Selected for inclusion in the “Best Lawyers in America” in Health Law, Ms. Johnson received her Bachelors of Professional Accountancy degree from Mississippi State University and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law.
10:00 am – 11:15 am | Course RC2102
2021 Regulatory Update Part 2
CPE Credits: 1.5 | CPE Type: Specialized Knowledge | Level: Basic | Prerequisites: None
Program Content: In the second half of our February 2021 Regulatory Update, we will review major regulatory changes that have taken place under the radar of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we will walk through major changes involving price transparency, compliance deadlines associated with the 21st Century Cures Act, what changes you can expect as a result of the move toward interoperability, and changes you need to make now to come in to compliance with the new information blocking rules.
Learning Objectives: After attending this session, participants will be able to:
Understand what information blocking is and in what contexts it may come into play for providers.
Identify exceptions to information blocking
Recognize the significance of the shift toward interoperability for the future of healthcare.
Prepare to take action to comply with information blocking rules.
Amie K. Alexander joined FRIDAY, ELDREDGE & CLARK, LLP after earning her law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Her practice is focused in the area of healthcare where she works primarily on various corporate and compliance matters. She drafts and reviews policies to ensure compliance with federal healthcare regulations such as HIPAA, Stark I and Stark II, Anti-Kickback and Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement. Amie’s clients include hospitals, physician groups and other medical service providers. Prior to joining the firm, Alexander developed a professional policy background while working with various organizations such as the National Agricultural Law Center, the Association of Arkansas Counties and the United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service.
12:15 pm – 1:30 pm | Course RC2103
Best Practice Reporting for Clinics
CPE Credits: 1.5 | CPE Type: Specialized Knowledge | Level: Basic | Prerequisites: None
Program Content: Reporting that is meaningful and consistent within healthcare clinics is a challenge for many organizations. During this presentation, the participants will be presented with best practices to follow to obtain clean and meaningful data as well as reporting that is consistently generated. Key reports to be used to effectively monitor the clinics’ operating performance will be shared along with tips to ensure providers and staff understand the data and can adjust behavior based on information provided. Reporting for monitoring clinic revenue cycle activity will be broken down into two categories (Revenue Cycle Financial Measures and Revenue Cycle Process Measures), with strategies to actively identify trends and anomalies within the data.
Learning Objectives: After attending this session, participants will be able to:
Understand the need for clean and meaningful data for clinics.
Identify key reports needed to monitor clinic performance and revenue cycle activity with tips to ensure providers
and staff understand the data and can adjust behaviors based on the information.
Understand how to monitor revenue cycle activity to actively identify trends and anomalies within the data.
Amy Graham is an experienced healthcare executive providing vision and direction in finance and revenue cycle and serving clients in the pharmacy, laboratory and hospital space. Amy has over 20 years’ experience in maximizing the accounting, finance and revenue cycle processes for healthcare organizations. Her professional expertise includes month-end accounting consolidations for divisions with $50-$200M net revenue; creation of accounting policies and procedures for intercompany transactions; strategic analysis to determine long- and short-term organizational goals; development and direction of budgeting and forecasting activities for multiple entities; and understanding of synchronization of revenue cycle management to financial statements.
Opal Greenway is an accomplished healthcare and finance professional who focuses primarily on the strategic needs of healthcare service providers. An expert in physician practices, ambulatory development, physician compensation, physician-hospital alignment strategies, valuations, capital planning, and regulatory compliance, she joined Stroudwater in 2015
1:45 pm – 3:00 pm | Course RC2104
Payer Denials: A Discussion on Prevention and Resolution
CPE Credits: 1.5| CPE Type: Specialized Knowledge | Level: Basic | Prerequisites: None
Program Content: In this ever-changing revenue cycle space, it’s important for organizations to remain agile. That said, it’s time to break the mold when it comes to denial prevention and resolution efforts. During this presentation, we will review trends and traditional methods used over the years and talk about what works and what methods tend to fall short of the goal. We’ll then talk about taking denial prevention to a higher level using a three-pronged approach: reporting, accountability and training. For reporting, we’ll review the importance of defining a claim denial versus a delay in payment and how this distinction impacts prevention focus areas. Accountability is reinforced using a robust action plan that accomplishes cross departmental buy-in. We’ll focus on what should be included in your action plan, what are realistic timeframes, who should be involved and how to keep ideas fresh. Lastly, we’ll talk about tools you can use to set teams up for success when working denials and how to create a team of subject matter experts using different training techniques.
Learning Objectives: After this presentation, participants will be able to:
Effectively develop an action plan to identify and prevent denials using a multidisciplinary team.
Distinguish between a delay or denial of payment and how each impact denial prevention efforts.
Understand additional workflows to resolve denials successfully and prevent similar denials in the future.
Megan Smith is currently the Executive Director of Quality and Training at Healthcare Resource Group. She has over nineteen years of revenue cycle experience including preservice authorizations, utilization management and all facets of Patient Financial Services. Focused on process improvement, Megan has an extensive background in denial prevention, payer appeals and regulatory compliance. Her current role includes developing and presenting companywide training as well as oversight of HRG’s quality audit program for both Billing and HIM departments.
3:15 pm – 4:30 pm | Course RC2105
Managed Care Strategy Update
CPE Credits: 1.5 | CPE Type: Specialized Knowledge | Level: Basic | Prerequisites: None
Program Content: Discussion of how Medicare Advantage membership trends, changes to inpatient hospice and respite rates and pricing transparency requirements impact managed care contracting strategy.
Learning Objectives: After this presentation, participants will be able to:
Understand Medicare Advantage growth trends and the importance in improving the revenue cycle process.
Be able to audit agreements with hospice companies to determine if there are revenue opportunities while reducing
exposure to being paid hospice rates for medical services.
Understand how new pricing transparency requirements may impact managed care rates.
Ed Casteel’s background includes 30 years’ experience in managed care, finance and revenue cycle operations. His extensive experience in managed care includes MSO operations, contract modeling and analysis, contract negotiations and strategy, business and product line development, fee for service and alternative payment methodologies, including capitation. Finance background includes decision support, costing systems development, capital budgeting and managed care finance and accounting. On the revenue cycle side, Ed specializes in denials and underpayment management centered around driving process improvement in the revenue cycle by integrating functions across patient access, utilization management, HIM, business office, managed care and payment verification (denials/underpayment) management. Ed has worked in settings including for-profits, not-for-profits and academic medical centers for many provider types including hospital, physician, integrated delivery systems and ancillary service providers (i.e., home health, DME, hospice, etc.). Ed holds an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis where he graduated with distinction. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from the University of Oklahoma and a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Langston University. Ed earned his CPA and was awarded the Silver Medal for highest score in the State of Oklahoma for the CPA exam. Ed is a member of Healthcare Financial Management Association where he has held multiple positions as a board member, committee chairs and committees in the St. Louis, Oklahoma and Mississippi Chapters.
EDUCATIONAL CREDITS
Health Care Financial Management Association-Arkansas Chapter is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.NASBAregistry.org
Arkansas Chapter HFMA is registered with the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy as a CPE sponsor. This registration does not constitute an endorsement by the Board as to the quality of our CPE program.
(Sponsor number 009840)
Prerequisites and advance preparation are not required unless otherwise indicated.
Depending on the track the participant attends, a maximum of 8.0 CPE credits is available.
All courses are instruction method: Group Live presented online due to Covid
All sessions will incorporate an element of participant engagement, and there will be time for questions after each session.
CPE Type is classified based on NASBA definitions. The Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy recently received final approval for the following CPE rule changes: Those working in public accounting must obtain 40% of their hours in content areas of Tax, Accounting & Auditing, and Ethics. Those not working in public accounting are required to obtain 20% of their hours in Tax, Accounting & Auditing, and Ethics. Previously, all active CPAs were required to obtain 50% hours in the specified subject areas. Finally, the Board reduced the group-study CPE requirement from 16 hours to 8 hours per year. These CPE changes are effective retroactive back to January 1, 2020. Chapter leadership is aware of these changes and committed to helping our CPA members meet the requirement each year by providing as many hours as possible in the specific categories listed above at each of our meetings, including annual MidSouth meeting and December CPA-Focused meeting.