“We recognize HSS as an important adjunct to HMG,” said HMG CEO, George Huntzinger. “As we look at the healthcare industry, the need for quality resources is only going to increase. We found it best to start a company focused on staffing certified, knowledgeable people.”

HMG has appointed Denise Reeser as Managing Director of HSS. He says of Reeser, “Denise brings over 30 years of progressive multidisciplinary healthcare management and consulting experience in a variety of healthcare information system settings with her to HSS. It was this background and her expertise that made her stand out.”

As Managing Director, Reeser will be responsible for working with clients to assess their staffing needs with various IT implementation projects and providing the experienced and skilled staff to supplement those projects. Reeser says the opportunity to work with the HMG team is what drew her to the role. “I’ve worked with George and his team before in a different capacity. They are a highly respected team, and I am thrilled to be working with them to serve the healthcare IT market.”

Reeser has worked in health information exchanges, government agencies, large prime integration companies, large multistate healthcare organizations, community hospitals, behavioral health institutions, and long-term care facilities. Her professional accomplishments include meaningful use assessment, executive education; information system and health information exchange strategic and operational plan development; information systems department assessment and restructuring; contract negotiations; project management; and system implementation. This experience coupled with HMG’s expertise is advantageous to success for a new company.

About Huntzinger Staffing Solutions, LLC

HSS provides experienced IT resources to healthcare organizations across the country, allowing their clients to address both short-term and long-term IT implementation staffing needs.  Working collaboratively with organizations, HSS identifies the required skill sets to meet business objectives.

About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.
HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com

Tang’s presentation, “Meaningful Use of HIT: Health System Change We Can Believe In,” focused on the context of health reform, the “whys” for Meaningful Use, and creating a data-driven platform for reform of healthcare delivery.

“Dr. Tang discussed the tools we need to be successful in using Meaningful Use as preparation for health reform,” said Robert Kitts, HMG Executive Vice President and Director. “Meaningful Use of HIT will give Americans access to higher quality care at affordable prices and will result in an overall improvement in the health of this country.”

HIT policy is enabling health reform by raising the bar for EHR, accelerating provider change, reshaping quality measures, and establishing the information platform to drive health system performance needed for reform.

Tang explained how the HIT Policy Committee was exploring new approaches to stage 3 of the Meaningful Use program. The committee is aligning the objectives with improvements in health outcomes and considering “deeming” partial satisfaction of the Meaningful Use requirements by good performance on quality measures.

About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.
HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com.

About Dr. Paul Tang
Paul Tang, M.D., M.S., is Vice President, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), and is Consulting Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. Dr. Tang directs the David Druker Center for Health Systems Innovation and also oversees PAMF’s electronic health record (EHR) system and its integrated personal health record (PHR) system, MyHealthOnline (formerly PAMFOnline). Dr. Tang received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and his M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University and is a Board-certified practicing Internist. For more information, visit http://www.pamf.org/Internal/.

“The HMG team at Hanover was both effective and efficient in assisting us reach our goal to obtain Meaningful Use in 2013,” said James Wissler, CEO of Hanover. “This is just the first step in demonstrating the value of Meaningful Use. We look forward to continuing our partnership with HMG by achieving additional objectives and measures in Stage 2 and beyond.”

“We are thrilled to help another health care organization successfully attest to Stage 1 Meaningful Use,” said Robert Kitts, Executive Vice President and Director at HMG. “Our HMG team was fully committed to validating data and working with the Hanover staff and physicians to take ownership of the clinical quality measures.”

HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to healthcare organizations across the country, focusing on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position healthcare organizations for the future. It is because of this guidance and project management expertise that Hanover Hospital is able to attest to Stage 1 Meaningful Use in 2013.

About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.
HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com

Earlier this year Reed joined the company as Vice President of Business Development after roles with Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, where he served as President and CEO of AllOne Health; and Geisinger Health System and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he served as Chief Information Officer.

“In January 2012, we expanded our Board of Directors from three-positions to a five-position board and began to diligently search for an additional two members. We identified two highly qualified individuals that we were confident would add tremendous value to the strategic position of HMG,” said HMG CEO, George Huntzinger. “After serious consideration of other candidates, we decided to move forward with electing Bill and Richard as Directors of HMG. Bill will obviously continue as Vice President in his current capacity, in addition to working with the other members of the HMG Board to oversee our operations and strategic direction for our future business growth.”

Richard Sorensen is currently the Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer of Michigan based U.S. Health Holdings, Ltd and its wholly owned subsidiaries, US Health and Life Insurance Company (a group health insurance carrier), Automated Benefit Services, Inc (a third party administrative company), and ABS Managed Care Administrators, Inc (a managed care company).

HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to healthcare organizations across the country, focusing on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position healthcare organizations for the future.

About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.

HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com

“As we look to assist our clients in preparing for the future and assessing where they are in their process, HMG provides a suite of Revenue Cycle Management offerings on both the Advisory Services side and on the Managed Services side in order to maximize our clients’ efficiency through these transitions. We believe awareness of these services will expand how we are able to serve our clients,” said Robert Kitts, Executive Vice President and Director at HMG.

With this suite of Advisory and Managed Service offerings, HMG is able to help clients avoid the pitfalls of revenue-impact on their processes as they go live.

“Our suite of Revenue Cycle Management Advisory Services utilizes HMG’s proprietary methodology to evaluate the overall organizational performance and state of readiness when utilizing or converting to Siemens, Epic, Cerner, MEDITECH, McKesson or other HIS-platforms. The scope of review narrowly focuses upon key processes presenting potential Day-1 impact to cash flow if not addressed,” says Mary Ann Lind, Revenue Cycle Executive at HMG. Lind continues, “Our suite of Revenue Cycle Management Managed Services leverages our experience to provide knowledgeable resources to help our clients through system implementations or interim management needs.”

The suite of Advisory Services includes:

• Revenue Cycle Performance Review:
• Patient Access
• Business Services
• HIM
• CDM Management
• Charge Capture & Reconciliation

• Go-Live Readiness Assessment:
• Comparison of Business Objectives to Current State of Configuration
• Go-Live “SWAT Team” Approach and Participants
• Functional Gap Analysis
• Change Management Activities
• Remedial Action Planning and Support

• Workflow Modeling:
• Current State/Future State Modeling
• Centralization of “Key” Revenue Cycle Processes
• Implementation Support (Project Managers, SME’s)

The suite of Managed Services includes:

• Interim Management:
• Revenue Cycle Project Managers/Consultants
• Director of Revenue Cycle
• Director of Patient Access
• Director of Business Services
• Director of HIM

• ICD-10 Program Management:
• Planning and Impact Analysis
• Project Management and Go-Live Support
• Post Implementation Support

About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.

HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com

“Without HMG, we would not have been able to go live when we did, nor would we have been as effective or efficient in such a timely, successful implementation,” said Kevin Donovan, CEO of Mt. Ascutney. “This is a critical initiative for us this year to receive Meaningful Use incentives allowing us to enhance our service offerings benefitting the community.”

“HMG works with all kinds of health care organizations and we are pleased with the success of the implementation that put them on a path to Meaningful Use and providing higher quality care,” said Robert Kitts, Executive Vice President and Director at HMG.

HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to healthcare organizations across the country, focusing on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position healthcare organizations for the future. It is because of this guidance and project management expertise that Mt. Ascutney is able to attest to Stage 1 Meaningful Use this fall.

About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.

HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com 

“This session will engage stakeholders who are leading the charge in Meaningful Use Attestation, and those who have identified successful strategies for maintaining Meaningful Use through Stage 2,” said Tanya Freeman, Chief Operating Officer of HMG. “We’ll discuss the strategies employed, bumps in the road and other experiences learned along the way.”

The 2012 IHT2 Health IT Summit brings together more than 200 C-level, physician, practice management and IT decision-makers from North America’s leading provider organizations and physician practices. For two days, executives will interact with a national audience of peers, thought leaders and solutions providers at The New York Academy of Medicine. Areas of discussion will include Meaningful Use, Health Information Exchange, Telehealth, Accountable Care, mHealth, and Cloud Computing, among other engaging topics.

During the Meaningful Use session, participants will learn to identify strategies that can help providers optimize IT solutions, learn how to establish effective information exchange networks, recognize how to leverage CPOE to go beyond error reduction and improve a care process, and identify how to develop a comprehensive plan to the government’s Meaningful Use requirements. For more, visit http://ihealthtran.com/newyorkhome.html

About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.

HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com

“2012 is proving a banner year for HMG,” Huntzinger said. “We’ve gained meaningful traction in new markets, largely based on our track record of assisting our clients meet the demands of an ever changing healthcare environment. We anticipate even more opportunity during the second half of the year as clients seek expertise in managing Healthcare Reform.”

Among the key new business engagements in HMG’s portfolio include:

• Completing an IT assessment involving IT functions, governance and costs, benchmarked against peer groups, for an independent, community-based hospital. HMG continues to work with this client, developing IT strategy, organization-wide governance and Meaningful Use incentive expectations.
• Assisting an independent hospital system in implementing advanced clinicals in pursuit of Meaningful Use Stage 1. This process also includes an HR, Payroll and new Cost Accounting system implementation.
• Signing a contract with a prestigious Integrated Delivery System (IDS) to assist with implementing standard clinical work flows throughout the organization.
• Providing interim leadership and project management assistance for a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) as it implements advanced clinicals as part of the Meaningful Use Stage 1 process.
• Signing a contract to assist a large orthopedic clinic in conducting a HIPAA Risk Assessment as part of a requirement for Meaningful Use 1 incentives.
• Continuing to provide interim IT leadership and project management services to numerous hospital systems across the country to help meet regulatory requirements and execute critical business objectives.

“As healthcare organizations continue to face challenges with regulatory compliance and changes in reimbursement models, HMG stands ready to assist them with their efforts,” Huntzinger said. In recent months, HMG has recruited additional industry experts to further bolster its human resources to meet growing demand.

About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.

HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com

You have invested significant resources to implement your EHR/EMR system with the expectation of capitalizing on that investment for years to come; using the system to attest for Meaningful Use Stage I and beyond. Now you face the system’s vendor prematurely sun-setting the product. What should you do – stay with your existing system or change to a new one?

The Current Situation

Your organization has expended, or is in the process of expending, considerable time and resources to implement a certified EHR/EMR system. This system was selected to serve as your organization’s information foundation for the future – providing timely and accurate clinical and administrative information, efficient and effective operations, quality patient outcomes, and high customer satisfaction. Additionally, this system was the vehicle to facilitate your facility and associated physicians attaining and maintaining Meaningful Use. Part of your basis for selecting this system was to leverage assistance from its vendor, i.e., their support and enhancements into the future, ensuring its ongoing capabilities would match regulatory requirements and customer expectations.

The Challenge

Now you face the prospect of that vendor moving in a different direction; a direction that seriously questions that ongoing support and enhancement of the system you have invested in and depend upon. What are the implications of your system being no longer supported and enhanced by your vendor? Leading to question such as:

• What happens if your system has an outage?
• How will your system be enhanced?
• How will your system remain certified?
• What will be the impact on your operations?
• What will be the impact regarding Meaningful Use?

Assess Your Options

Faced with the challenge of losing support and enhancements for your system, the best approach is to assess your options:

• Do we continue with our current system? If so, for how long?
• When do we seek a replacement system?
• How do we select and implement a new system in the least traumatic and costly manner?
• Do we need to adjust our Meaningful Use approach, and if so, how?
• What is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to change?

Partner

Your organization is not alone facing this challenge. There are hundreds of healthcare organizations across the country that face loss of robust vendor support for their existing EHR/EMR system. But more importantly, The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc. (HMG) is available to help.

Through its expertise and experience in guiding healthcare organizations through EHR/EMR system selection and implementation processes, assisting organizations and physicians successfully attest for Meaningful Use Stage I, and advising organizations as to the optimal time to make a system transition, HMG is positioned to assist you with this challenge.

The HMG Approach

HMG will take a targeted approach to determine your organization’s vulnerability related to the sun-setting of your EHR/EMR system and the steps you should take to address it. HMG can advise and assist you in evaluating:

• Operational implications of staying with your current EHR/EMR system
• Operational and financial implications of implementing a new EHR/EMR system
• Financial and Clinical Meaningful Use implications of implementing a new EHR/EMR system
• Staying with your current EHR/EMR system versus implementing a new system
• Optimal time and approach for implementing a new EHR/EMR system

Call HMG Now

The necessity for an expedient and thorough assessment should be evident. Whether our evaluation points to enhancements to your present EHR/EMR system or the recommendation of a new EHR/EMR system, the sooner your operation is assessed and a strategy agreed upon, the less traumatic and costly the enhancements or changes will likely be. We look forward to partnering with your organization on this crucial challenge.

For more information, contact
The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc. at
570.824.4721 or email at info@huntzingergroup.com

Click Here to download the PDF version of this whitepaper.

“Industry experts observe that less than 10 percent of provider organizations have begun to prepare for ICD-10,” said George Huntzinger, president and CEO of HMG. “The reality is that provider organizations are already stretched beyond present limits in efforts to meet healthcare regulatory and compliance requirements. It’s not a case of lack of attention to ICD-10, but a lack of resources, bandwidth and time required to thoroughly digest the implications associated with ICD-10 readiness and implementation.”

To this end, HMG has invested in healthcare subject matter experts like Chapman who can assist in mitigating the impact to operations costs before, during and after ICD-10—not to mention critical assistance to avoid potentially delayed and reduced reimbursement. Chapman, who recently authored a white paper on the topic for HMG, is leading the charge.

As HMG’s Practice Director, Chapman will also be responsible for leading and facilitating client efforts in revenue cycle operations and financial performance improvement objectives through identification and implementation of technology and processes. Clients will benefit from Chapman’s past successes in defining and implementing strategies to optimize reimbursement opportunities and identify greater efficiencies throughout the revenue cycle, particularly as provider reimbursement challenges with healthcare reform and ICD-10 continue to increase.

“As healthcare organizations continue to face challenges with regulatory compliance and changes in reimbursement models, we want to be in a position to assist them with their efforts,” Huntzinger said.  “Nancy’s expertise and leadership provides HMG with the resources to do so.”

About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.

HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com