Medicare Revenue Recovery ReSource

Medicare reimbursement is one of the top issues that our clients face, so we’ve identified a unique way to make your Medicare revenue recovery much less of a headache. Beam Partners, LLC specializes in helping healthcare plans recover additional Medicare premium by using custom software that combines your medical claims and pharmacy data to identify the medical records that qualify.

Morbidity-based payments

The Medicare Advantage program operates under a diagnosis-based risk adjustment system that pays higher monthly capitation rates for enrollees with higher morbidity levels. Diagnosis codes extracted from medical claims are submitted to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS uses these diagnoses to assign enrollees to disease categories. The problem is that medical claims often do not reflect the enrollees’ true morbidity:

• Only a fraction of the diseases and conditions documented in the medical record ever make it to the claim form or record submitted to the health plan.
• New enrollees often have inadequate claims information.
• Inadequate diagnosis coding is common because diagnosis codes rarely factor into the claims adjudication process.

Every disease not submitted to CMS that is included in the CMSHCC (Hierarchical Condition Categories) model represents lost revenue. This lost revenue is most acute for patients with comorbidities, who are likely to require a disproportionate share of your resources.

Lost Opportunity

If you have not reviewed medical records for additional HCCs in the past two years, you may have given up significant revenue. The portion of the capitation payment attributable to medical diagnosis is being phased in by Medicare Revenue Recovery ReSource CMS through 2007, at which time 100% of the premium payment will be risk based. The table gives the transition schedule.

Results

Working closely with your staff, Beam clinical staff assesses data and medical charts to maximize recovery of lost premium. The results can be substantial. Based on its experience, Beam Partners estimates recoveries of about $3 million for every 10,000 members in the Medicare plan. Therefore, for plans with 25,000 members, approximately $7.5 million of additional recoveries is typical.

Contact: Your Summit Re account manager or Brian Fehlhaber, VP, Sales and Marketing at 260-469-3004 or bfehlhaber@summit-re.com.

Schedule an Inhouse Case Management Seminar

To help your staff keep current with case management trends and standards of practice, Summit ReSources is offering a free case management seminar. This seminar has been approved for 3.5 contact hours by the Commission for Case Manager Certification (CCMC).

The seminar topics include standards of practice, trends in case management and benefits of case management. We will also personalize the seminar by discussing the successes and challenges of your case management program.

Summit Re clients can schedule the free seminar for their teams by contacting:

Debbie Stubbs, RN, MS, CCM, Managed Care Specialist

260-407-3979 / dstubbs@summit-re.com

Information-Based Decisions with TransAdvise

URN’s TransAdvise is a new complimentary service for our clients who have contracts with URN. TransAdvise clinical consultants can assist you and your members by providing information about transplant-related diagnoses and treatment options. A dedicated team of transplant nurse experts who work with more than 12,000 transplants each year are available to provide:

• Transplant program performance information (e.g. annual volumes and outcomes) to help patients make more informed decisions about their transplant care.
• Information about relevant clinical trials and treatment protocols based on diagnosis or underlying condition.
• Assistance in referral to Transplant Centers of Excellence Network programs to maximize clinical and financial outcomes.

These services help you and your members make more informed decisions about transplant care with the goal of better outcomes.

Access to TransAdvise is direct, flexible, easy, and free to our clients. Simply call (800) 343-4305 to speak with a TransAdvise clinical consultant or provide this number directly to your members. TransAdvise clinical consultants are available from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday. Conference calls with a TransAdvise clinical consultant are also available for you and your members.

Summit Re/URN Transplant Program

The Fall (October) 2005 edition of Summit Perspectives detailed Summit Re’s new transplant program features with United Resources Networks (URN). Some key points to keep in mind regarding the program are:

• URN access fees are discounted for transplant services on business reinsured through Summit Re. These discounts are not available by directly contracting with URN or through any other reinsurer.
• URN will extend the Summit Re discount fee arrangements to a new Summit Re client who was using URN through another reinsurer.
• A Summit Re client does not have to use URN exclusively in order to obtain the discounted access fees for transplant services where URN is utilized on business reinsured through Summit Re.
• Zero Access Fees (ZAP) is an exclusive URN arrangement with Summit Re. It provides for alternative transplant facility terms with no access fees. These terms can be elected on a case-by-case basis at the time of each transplant referral.

Please contact Debbie Stubbs RN, MS, CCM at dstubbs@summit-re. com if you have any questions or would like additional information concerning the Summit Re/URN Transplant Program.

U.R.N Programs for Specific Diseases: Congenital Heart Disease Resource Services (CHD)

Half of the referrals for pediatric heart transplantation are for congenital heart disease. For these cases, corrective surgery may be a viable alternative to transplantation. Treatment for complex CHD cases averages $290,000 per episode – or $1.16 million per 100,000 covered lives. Clinical and financial outcome data reveals that experience with CHD surgery creates value in all dimensions. This is the basis for the U.R.N. CHD Centers of Excellence Network. There are seven centers across the United States that meet the rigorous evaluation criteria specific to CHD. The surveys and criteria are reviewed annually by the U.R.N. Clinical Sciences Institute and their advisory panel for CHD.

The average length of stay in a CHD COE network facility is 16 days vs. 29 days in a non-COE Network facility. The decreased length of stay, in addition to the average of 40% discount U.R.N. has negotiated with the CHD COE Network facilities, leads to a total average cost of $106,873 vs. $290,000 per surgery.

You may visit www.urnclient.com to view the volume data, outcome data, and credentialing criteria for the U.R.N.’s CHD Centers of Excellence Network. Volume and outcome data might be helpful information to share with members and their physicians.

Transplant Facts: Costs and Incidence

The cost of transplantation can be staggering and continues to rise as new technology and pharmacology become available.  

Incidence of Transplants

According to the United Organ Sharing Network (UNOS), there are currently over 89,000 patients listed for a transplant.  The breakdown of types of transplants as a percentage of the total is shown in the chart below.  There continues to be a disparity between the number of transplants requested and the number of organs available. Only 40% of the patients waiting for a solid organ transplant will get one. To view the current wait list statistics and the number of transplants completed and organs donated, please go to www.unos.org.

Comparison of Transplant Programs

Summit Re engaged in a stringent due diligence process prior to making the decision to enter into an exclusive agreement with United Resource Networks (U.R.N.) for transplant management. Below you will find a comparison of the type of information we considered:

Size & Scope	U.R.N.	INTERLINK	LifeTrac
Covered lives	46 million	20 million	15 million
Annual transplant referrals	10,000+	900	1,800
Centers available	108+	44	47
Average network discount across all five phases	43%	31%	31%
Dedicated personnel (excluding claims repricing):Licensed medical / clinical staff Support staff Total	86 97 183	2 10 12	3 6 9
Pricing
Per diem for all phases of care in most contracts	Yes	No	No
Organ & bone marrow acquisition included in all case rates	Yes	Some	Some
Access Fees	$3,500 - $20,000	$3,000 - $13,000	None
Services
Complete utilization & financial reporting	Yes	Yes	Unknown
Web access to comprehensive medical center data	Yes	No	Yes
Transplant case-management services available	Yes	No	No
Quality & Credentialing
Physician advisory panels	4	No	No
Education
Annual education conferences	5+, on-line CEUs	On-line CEUs	No
Annual client conference	Yes	No	Unknown
Other Products
Able to take or share economic risk for transplants	Yes	No	No
Specialized pediatric credentialing and network	Yes	No	Yes
Congenital heart disease program and network	Yes	No	No

Disclaimer – Competitor information is based on data available through a variety of sources. Specific detailed information should be sought directly from each competitor to ensure reliable comparison data.

Zero Access Fees (ZAP) Available on Case-by-Case Basis

If you access U.R.N. through Summit Re, you also have access to ZAP. You can elect at the time of each transplant referral to use U.R.N.’s traditional facility terms, which have the access fee, or use the ZAP contract and not pay an access fee. Your actual transplant costs will be determined based on the terms you have chosen. Generally, the traditional terms will provide for a lower cost, even with consideration of the access fee, if the transplant situation turns out to be average or worse than average. On the other hand, the ZAP terms will generally perform better if it turns out that the transplant situation is much better than average.

ZAP provides contract terms which U.R.N. believes are superior to their competitors. While U.R.N. does not guarantee to always beat the competition, it is U.R.N.’s intent to maintain the best contracts as compared to its competitors, regardless of which U.R.N. option is selected.

Reinsurance incentives for the use of either U.R.N. program are available. For clients who choose the traditional access fee product, the access fee will continue to be treated as a claim cost. Summit Re receives no incentive payments for offering these network products to our clients. Our interest is to bring you effective programs and services to help manage your catastrophic risk. Please note that this program is only available through Summit Re.

U.R.N. Transplant Information and Reports

U.R.N. provides an extranet site, www.urnclient.com that contains the detailed quantitative and qualitative information collected during the network credentialing process. The site also contains contract information for each participating provider, maps for each U.R.N. network, referrals submitted to U.R.N., and the status of claims repricing for individuals referred for services through U.R.N. Many of the transplant contracts are negotiated based on “phases” of transplant. Below are the definitions of the phases:

Phase I Pre-Transplant Evaluation	All health services required to access and evaluate a member for acceptance into a transplant program.  Phase I ends upon the member’s listing with United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). For living donor organ transplants or organ transplants not listed with UNOS, Phase I ends upon the member’s acceptance into a transplant program.
Phase II Pre-Transplant Care	All health services provided to a member following acceptance into a transplant program, or listing with UNOS, and before the admission for the authorized transplant.
Phase III Transplant Procedure	All health services provided to a member from the day of admission for the authorized transplant until the earlier of the member’s discharge from the transplant facility following the transplant admission or transfer to transplant facility’s inpatient rehabilitation unit or facility.
Phase IV Follow-up Care	All health services provided to a member during the 90 day period immediately following Phase III.
Phase V Post Phase IV Health Services	All health services provided to a member during the one-year period immediately following Phase IV.

Quarterly Reports

During the month following each quarter, U.R.N. compiles a client network activity summary report reviewing all referrals received for transplants for that quarter. The status of the referrals and claims payments, access fees paid, and cost savings are included in the report. The report is forwarded to all Summit Re clients accessing U.R.N. through Summit Re. If you have any questions about the reports you receive, please contact Debbie Stubbs RN, MS, CCM at dstubbs@Summit-Re.com or Kari Lee at kari.lee@UHC.com.

Flexible, Multi-tiered Approach to Transplant Management

As the nation’s leading provider of transplant benefit management services, U.R.N. leverages over 46 million lives and its expertise to offer access to the most advantageous provider contracts available. To address all the needs identified by clients, U.R.N. has developed a multi-tiered approach for transplant patient management, which includes the following: Transplant Resources Services

TRS provides individuals in need of transplant services with access to expertise through the U.R.N. Transplant Centers of Excellence Network (COE). The COE Network is evaluated annually to help ensure that only those programs that excel in transplantation participate as members. The COE Network developed through U.R.N. offers the highest quality of care for patients, greater volume for providers, and lowest total cost for payers. Clients typically experience an average savings of 43% per transplant episode as compared to industry standard transplant costs.

Transplant Access Program

TAP was developed to address the challenge clients face when their members decide to use a non-COE Network transplant program. TAP provides geographical access and economic relief through prearranged contracts for transplantation at medical centers through the US.

Supplemental Contracts (Extra Contractual Services )

U.R.N.’s contracting expertise is available on a case-by-case basis through Supplemental Contracts, when a patient referral falls outside of both the COE and TAP Networks.  U.R.N. is able to negotiate discounts at these facilities for transplants and related services to provide economic protection for clients. U.R.N. is able to negotiate an average discount of 35% of billed charges.

Specialized Physician Review

Specialty physicians are available to review clinical information related to requests for transplantation and congenital heart disease (CHD) surgery/treatment.  Clients may elect to receive one or three written opinions by board certified, actively practicing physicians regarding the appropriateness of the transplant or CHD surgery/treatment. The clinical status and proposed protocol are addressed. Each clinical summary includes disease treatment statement, literature review, alternatives to care and community standards.

TransAdvise

A single phone call lets clients reach a U.R.N. nurse to request consultation regarding transplants, CHD surgery and complex cancer care. The nurses have extensive experience in the area in which they consult and have access to the most updated information regarding the types of care provided in each U.R.N. facility.