Updates from your ACE team
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Expand your practice to achieve financial independence
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This year, we've been focusing on practice expansion - finding innovative ways to help you offer more to your communities. As we come to the middle of the year (already!), we're excited about the growth we're seeing for our clients, which has also resulted in expansion for our company. We've increased our team to better support your needs, and have also grown our territory; we're now working with local FQHCs in Maryland in addition to Florida, Georgia and Mississippi. Thank you for the privilege of serving you and your communities, and helping contribute to improved healthcare!
Over the past few months, we've looked at some of the areas where many FQHCs experience revenue leakage and ways to turn these around to make a positive revenue impact. We’ve focused on
recouping retroactive Medicaid
(see below) – and why? For our clients, we’ve had great success, receiving reimbursement for an average of 25% of claims that would have otherwise been written off! We’ve also talked about the importance of implementing systems and processes to support the transition to value-based care, and how
providing detailed patient data through coding and quality measures
will positively impact your revenue moving forward.
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In this issue, we focus on 340B pharmacy – it can be a ‘powerhouse’ of your service! The 340B program is experiencing double-digit growth rates year on year – and you can also achieve this when your pharmacy model is tailored to your community needs. We share some of the latest industry statistics below. We’ve also seen an increase in HRSA audits, and discuss the importance of performing regular self-audits to ensure compliance requirements are met.
Health center funding is still topical, with several pieces of health center and workforce funding legislation being introduced in both the House and the Senate this session - the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
is seeking our support for these
. CMS has been focused on ways to improve healthcare for FQHC and rural area patients through the use of technology, quality measures, and delivering lowering prescription drug prices and increasing transparency for the patient. Keep reading for more details and follow us on
LinkedIn
for weekly updates!
Next month we'll be attending Health Choice Network's (HCN) 2019 Annual Educational Conference in Boca Raton, Florida from June 20-22. Come visit us at our booth - we'd love to see you!!
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In many cases, Medicaid coverage can be applied retroactively, which provides an ongoing opportunity to recoup revenue that
would have otherwise been written off!
I
f you process large write-offs for self-pay and charity patients, you may be able to recoup some of these!
Contact us
for a free consultation, and discover how this can work for you.
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340B program... still growing strong!
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Ac
cording to IQVIA Institute's report "Medicine Use and Spending in the U.S. A Review of 2018 and Outlook to 2023" published this month, Americans are taking more prescription medicines than ever: 5.8 billion prescriptions in 2018, a gain of 2.7% over the prior year. [Click to view larger image]
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Further analysis conducted by the
Drug Channels Institute
indicates that 340B program purchases account for at least 7% of the total market, and is expected to increase. [Click to view larger image]
Some key statistics:
- 340B spend increased by 26% from 2017 to 2018.
- 340B is growing an average of 23.3% per year.
- Compound average growth rate (CAGR) was 28.1% from 2014 through 2018.
- Use of specialty medicine prescriptions grew by over 5%.
- Chronic prescriptions accounted for more than two-thirds of total prescriptions.
And these stats are even higher than those reported last year! What does this mean for you? There's still significant opportunity to grow your 340B pharmacy model and income.
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340B self-audit: what's your process?
The Government Accountability Office
(GAO) has been conducting interviews
to assess covered entity efforts to prevent duplicate discounts in the Medicaid Drug Rebate and 340B Drug Pricing Programs. Even if you haven't received an interview request, now's the time to get prepared, as this looks to be a hot topic moving forward.
We have specialty experience participating in HRSA 340B audits, and offer independent 340B Compliance Audits to ensure program integrity and data accuracy. Our services focus on providing audits that are structured similar to HRSA's audit objectives, designed to work directly with your staff, and to provide timely guidance and solutions to assist your organization.
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Media watch and other useful info
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PRAPARE : Helping health centers assess & address the social determinants of health
Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients’ Assets, Risks, and Experiences
(PRAPARE) is a national effort to help health centers and other providers collect and apply the data they need to better understand their patients’ social determinants of health, transform care to meet the needs of their patients, and ultimately improve health and reduce costs. It is both a standardized patient risk assessment tool as well as a process and collection of resources to identify and act on the social determinants of health.
The updated
PRAPARE Implementation and Action Toolkit
will allow health centers to collect and respond to data on the social determinants of health using different Electronic Health Records and in different clinical settings.
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New tools available
HRSA has launched a new
Training and Technical Assistance Hub that
centralizes training and technical assistance resources. The Hub is and provides
an easy way for health centers to find technical assistance centers associated with many of HRSA’s program.
Stay up to date with HRSA's latest news.
Read the latest 340B
OPA Program Update which explains the 340B Ceiling Price and Package Adjusted Price, with examples provided.
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