Resources and Technical Assistance for CAHs
Community Benefit Reporting and 501(c)(3) Compliance Resources
Hospital community benefits are initiatives and activities undertaken by nonprofit hospitals to improve health in the communities they serve. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) also established “additional requirements for charitable hospitals “under § 501(r) of the Internal Revenue Code. The following are resources are available to assist Oregon’s rural and frontier hospitals with 501c3 compliance.
- CHA and CHIP Requirements for 501(c)(3) Hospitals, Local Public Health, and Coordinated Care Organizations
- Current Critical Access Hospital Community Health Needs Assessments
- The Oregon Office of Rural Health, in partnership with the Oregon Health Authority’s Transformation Center and Public Health Division, created an interactive map of the most recent Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs/ CHAs) and Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIPs) for Oregon Non-profit Hospitals, Local Public Health Authorities (LPHAs) and Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs).
- Critical Access Hospital Community Benefit Reporting Highlights Fiscal Year: 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018
- A Review of Community Benefit Reporting Challenges for Critical Access Hospitals in Oregon (Verité Healthcare Consulting, LLC, 2017)
Webinars for CAHs and Small Rural Hospitals
The Oregon Office of Rural Health (ORH) is pleased to offer educational webinars for Critical Access Hospital (CAH) leadership and staff. New in 2023, we are pleased to announce the launch of a new webinar series focused on best practices and considerations in finance and operations for CAHs. This series of 10 webinars, presented by Jonathan Pantenburg, MHA of Wintergreen, starts with “A Best Practice Checklist: CAH Financial and Operational Performance” on Feb. 16 from 12 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Webinars are free and will be offered through Sept. 2023. Please note: You must register for each session separately. You may attend as many of these webinars as you wish.
Webinar slides and recordings will be posted on this page after each event.
CAH Finance and Operation Webinar Schedule
Feb. 16, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
A Best Practice Checklist: CAH Financial and Operational Performance
In an environment of increasing cost and stagnant reimbursement, CAHs must do everything necessary to improve their financial stability. This presentation identifies a small but focused set of tactics CAHs can implement to improve their financial and operational performance.
Video | Presentation slides
Mar. 9, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
A Systems Approach: Maintaining a High Functioning Revenue Cycle Department
The revenue cycle remains one of the best opportunities for hospitals to improve operational efficiencies due to its complexity and core function. This presentation walks participants through the full revenue cycle value chain while identifying common pitfalls that impact revenue.
Mar. 30, 12 p.m. - 1: p.m.
PIEC 101: Transitioning to a Performance Improvement Executive Committee
Most health care organizations maintain a siloed management and monitoring structure that isolates finance, quality, and staff. This presentation explores the concept of a performance improvement executive committee and identifies a specific organizational model to remove silos, promote and express interdependencies, foster accountability and increase alignment between financial and clinical staff.
Apr. 20, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Ensuring Long-Term Success Today: 2023 Revenue Cycle Strategies
The health care industry’s pace of change quickens daily and presents new challenges to patient access, service delivery and long-term success. This ongoing transformation creates limitless opportunities with revenue cycle management to advance performance, compliance, quality, satisfaction and retention. This presentation will focus on fundamentals to maximize opportunities in staffing, financial management and partnerships.
May 11, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
CAH Reimbursement Heuristic: Using Medicare Cost Report to Reveal Opportunities
Most organizations view the Medicare Cost Report as a tedious administrative task and to many CFOs, a hassle. As a result, CAHs often fail to acknowledge the direct impact the cost report has on CAH reimbursement. This presentation highlights the importance of the Medicare Cost Report, enumerates the Top 10 Most Common Errors and explains how to leverage the cost report as a part of the managerial decision-making process.
June 8, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
10 CAH Revenue Cycle Priorities: What to Review Immediately
Sometimes operational changes take time to manifest; sometimes, they don’t. This presentation focuses on areas to review within your revenue cycle that can improve payment immediately (and retrospectively). This review will provide top areas of focus that can increase cash flow, enhance revenue, improve contractual performance and minimize denials.
Video | Presentation slides
July 13, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
The Post-Acute Care Lever: Hospital Swing Beds
A hospital swing bed program can serve as a vital patient care service and an untapped revenue growth resource for rural hospitals across the country. This presentation focuses on specific opportunities to enhance the performance of the swing bed program by improving operational efficiencies and increasing utilization of them, while exposing misconceptions related to price setting, contribution margin analysis and contract negotiations with commercial payers.
Video | Presentation slides
Aug. 3, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
How to Build Revenue: Front-End Competencies
Efficient and accurate verification of insurance eligibility and benefits streamlines the revenue cycle process and typically generates ancillary revenue, insurance incentives and improved value-based and quality scores. This presentation will focus on insurance benefits, preventative services and referred-ordered ancillary services. Reviews will include the importance of insurance verification and operational communication to optimize revenue from patient populations.
Video | Presentation slides
Aug. 31, 12 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
The No Surprises Act: Revenue Protections and Transactional Compliance
Pricing transparency regulations have been in place since 2020, yet a vast majority of hospitals are still noncompliant. This presentation will provide strategies to employ improved eligibility and coverage estimates, providing patient estimation and good faith estimates, and improving precertification and authorization issues to prevent inaccurate balance billing and ensure rural hospitals meet regulatory requirements to mitigate potential financial penalties.
Video | Presentation slides
Sept. 14, 12 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Fund Your Mission: Practice Steps to Move from Volume to Value
With the ongoing movement toward population-based payment models, organizations must understand how volume-based initiatives can impact finance and operations performance as well as drive long-term strategic options. This presentation focuses on the transition from volume to value while providing participants with the pros and cons of different population-based approaches.