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If you're not paying as much attention to documentation and medical necessity for Medicaid patients as you do for those covered by Medicare, your hospital is likely to suffer when the Medicaid Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program starts on Jan. 1, 2012.
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When it's typical for patients to wait four hours or more to see an emergency physician, and your leave-without-being-seen (LWBS) rate is pushing 10%, you know it's time to rethink the whole process.
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In response to comments from healthcare professionals, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) made significant changes to the final rule for the creation of accountable care organizations (ACOs), which encourage providers to better coordinate care across all settings.
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After Charleston (WV) Area Medical Center began a readmission reduction program, readmission rates for a group of targeted heart failure patients was reduced by 50%.
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Key components of the initiatives include forging an alliance with post-acute providers, transition coaching for at-risk patients during the hospital stay and after discharge, and teaching patients to use their personal health record to track their care and list questions for providers, according to Tammy Cole-Poklewski, RN, MS, director of quality, patient safety, and care management at the 142-bed facility.
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(Editor's note: This is a multi-part series where we will explore the most common roles, functions, models, and caseloads in the hospital case management field.)
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Healthcare reform mandates, new reimbursement requirements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and pressure from payers to keep patients out of the hospital and emergency department all mean that hospitals need to do a better job of transitioning patients to another level of care.
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Orientation should be geared to the experiential level of the new staff. The novice case manager will require a different orientation than the experienced case manager. You will need to determine this based on an assessment of the new staff member.
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Your job descriptions should clearly define the minimum amount of education that you require for the role of case manager or social worker.
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Most of the items in in the box "Characteristics and Core Competencies of Potential Candidates" (below) are inherent and/or learned over time.