Pharmacy News Article

Consultants Help Mitigate Risk for Future RAC Take Backs

ALPHARETTA, Ga.(BUSINESS WIRE) HealthPort, a top-25 company in the healthcare information technology industry, today announced that Union Hospital, a 150-bed acute care facility in Dover, Ohio, and one of Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals of 2009, has contracted with HealthPort for clinical coding audits, and ongoing compliance monitoring. Onsite at Union Hospital since January, HealthPort's Healthcare Consulting Services (HCS) Division has already helped the organization improve coding for several of Medicare's Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program target areas and enhanced coder consistency and performance.

We just received our first request letter from the RAC,? mentions Angela Hammond, RHIT, Assistant Director, Health Information Management (HIM). Armed with HealthPort's coding audit findings and educational services we are better prepared to reduce RAC risk going forward, through better clinical documentation and coding,? she adds.

Prior to engaging HealthPort, Hammond had conducted coding and charge description master audits through another firm. HealthPort coding experts have delivered a strong return-on-investment for Union Hospital and we look forward to even stronger coding outcomes as we complete Phase II and Phase III of our plan,? concludes Hammond.

We are honored to have been chosen by Union Hospital for coding audits and to subsequently provide ongoing compliance monitoring,? commented Torrey Barnhouse, Vice President of HealthPort's HCS Division. We commend Union Hospital on taking such an integrated approach to clinical coding process improvement and RAC compliance.?

About HealthPort

HealthPort is the largest provider of release of information and the premiere choice for health information technology. With a comprehensive selection of affordable, quality health information solutions, HealthPort serves more than 10,000 healthcare facilities, over 44,000 physicians and millions of requestors nationwide. HealthPort is changing the face of healthcare by combining knowledge, technology and service to streamline the administrative and business processes of the healthcare community. For more information, visit www.healthport.com or call 800-737-2585.

About Union Hospital

Named a Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals? award winner in 2009, Union Hospital is one of the leading community hospitals in Ohio. Located on a beautiful 28 acre campus in Dover, Union Hospital staffs 154 inpatient beds and employs approximately 1,000 people. The medical staff includes 200 primary care and specialist physicians.

HealthPort
Hadiya K. Reynolds, 770-689-3612
Marketing Communications Manager
Fax: 770-459-3130

Source: HealthPort