The Georgia Scroll
January 1998
Issues to Action — Education for Progress
By: Rick Langosch, CEO
Premier Behavioral Healthcare Inc.
On February 10, 1998 the Georgia Society of CPAs and the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) will co-sponsor a healthcare conference — Issues to Action-Education for Progress. This exciting seminar will feature practical sessions, which feature a "nuts and bolts" approach to the issues that are at the forefront of the minds of healthcare professionals today. And this year we are providing an unprecedented amount of accounting and auditing (A&A) credit—a possible 5 hours!
We are fortunate to have a Keynote panel to kick off the conference with Living Between the Rock and the Hard Place —Establishing and maintaining an Organization’s Compliance Program. Ron Levine, Esq., Chief of Government/Healthcare Fraud Unit and Catherine Votaw, Esq., Deputy Chief of the Civil Division, both from United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of PA. will provide us with a compliance update. In addition, F. Lisa Murtha, J.D. with Deloitte & Touche LLP, who was a former compliance officer for the University of Pennsylvania Health Care System will walk us through the steps of implementing and monitoring a compliance program.
Along those same lines, Greg Clark, CPA, CISA, CPE, from Lindquist Avey Macdonald Bakersville, Inc. will talk about the new Statement on Auditing Standard No. 82 — Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit. SAS82 is effective for years ending December 31, 1997. This topic is a "must know" for auditors as well as anyone who will be undergoing a financial statement audit.
Louise Bride, Director of Managed Care, from the Department of Medical Assistance will give us an update on Medicaid in Georgia, including an update on "Directions for Change" the Medicaid reform initiative study undertaken in January 1997, Georgia Better Health Care II and other issues affecting many providers in Georgia.
At the request of our prior year participants we have included two information systems topics on this year’s programs. They will run concurrently.
HEDIS® and the NCQA Compliance Audit™ – What it means to Managed Care Plans, Employers and Consumers will be the subject of concurrent session 1. Marci Thomas, CPA Deloitte & Touche LLP, and Janice Stevko, CISA Deloitte & Touche LLP will address a topic that is relatively new on the horizon but will impact virtually all providers who do business with managed care plans, employers and other purchasers of healthcare.
HEDIS® The Health Employer Data and Information Set is a standardized set of performance measures that is used by employers, state and federal regulators, consultants, consumer organizations and health plans as the performance measurement tool of choice. Surveys indicate that almost 90% of all health plans collect and report some HEDIS® data. The NCQA is now in the process of instituting an audit requirement for HEDIS® data in order for it to be published. This topic discusses the standards and how health plans can get started preparing for the audit.
Our second concurrent session, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), The Use of Technology as a Business Solution will be presented. Emphasis is currently being placed on the use of technology as a business solution to reduce both costs and administrative paperwork. Electronic data interchange can help reduce the time and cost associated with administrative tasks, drastically reduce errors, and streamline the reporting any payment process. This topic helps take the mystery out of electronic billing.