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WEDI Newsletter | February 2018
2018 National Conference | Media Spotlight: Health Data Management
WEDI On Demand: February's Featured Video
Executive Corner: Which WEDI Sponsorship is Right for You?
Workgroup Roundup | Latest Member News
WEDI 2018 Spring Conference to Focus on Bridging Information and Technology to Improve Healthcare

May 21-23 conference will bring healthcare leaders together across payers, providers, government regulators and industry vendors to discuss key issues impacting the healthcare landscape

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), the nation’s leading nonprofit authority on the use of health IT to create efficiencies in healthcare information exchange and a trusted advisor to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today announced the 2018 WEDI Spring Conference will take place May 21-23 at the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale, Ariz. Focusing on the theme “Bridging Information and Technology to Improve Healthcare,” the event will bring together some of the industry’s brightest health IT minds for a series of high-level discussions that are idea-focused, foster learning and provoke collaboration.

During conference sessions, attendees will hear best practices, emerging trends and case studies focusing on timely topics impacting the healthcare industry including: blockchain, FHIR, data exchange, prior authorization, attachments, women in health IT, integrated healthcare and the new Medicare Card Project.

To read the full press release visit WEDI .
CMS extends eCQM, EHR Incentive Program submission deadlines
By Greg Slabodkin

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has extended the deadline to March 16 for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals to submit electronic clinical quality measure data for the Inpatient Quality Reporting program and to attest to Meaningful Use of electronic health records for Calendar Year 2017.

The original deadline had been February 28.

“CMS understands that some hospitals and their health information technology (IT) vendors need additional time to submit their eCQM data and attest for Medicare EHR Incentive Program requirements,” states the agency’s announcement. “This extension is intended to reduce reporting burden and is part of CMS’ continued commitment to ensuring successful data submissions to the Hospital IQR and Medicare EHR Incentive Programs.”

To read the full article visit Health Data Management .
This month's highlighted  Vimeo channel  video features Debra Meisner, a WEDI Board Member and Vice Chair, Education Committee, as well as the Vice President Regulatory Compliance for Change Healthcare. In this video , Meisner describes how WEDI Workgroups are useful in igniting stakeholder collaboration and how WEDI conferences can be a forum for crucial face-to-face collaboration.
Visit the new WEDI Vimeo Channel to view our entire video library!
Each month, the Executive Corner provides prominent WEDI leaders an opportunity to share their perspectives on a variety of topics impacting healthcare – from legislative matters and industry events to the headline-grabbing issues of the day.  
Which WEDI Sponsorship is Right for You?

With our May Conference just around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to express the importance of WEDI’s mission to bring education within Health IT to the industry. Health IT is the nexus that will allow our industry to enhance the patient experience on all fronts, and WEDI supports these efforts every day through our dedicated workgroups, industry surveys, legislative commentaries and educational forums like our annual conferences and webinars. In order for WEDI to continue this important work, we rely heavily on our member sponsors, who help us bring industry players under one roof – driving consensus and continuing to move the ball forward through these educational efforts.

This year, we’ve launched a new member sponsorship document and sponsorship prospectus to outline the various ways sponsors can show their invaluable support at our May conference, across 2018, and beyond. Our sponsorship opportunities include member-exclusive opportunities and even opportunities for non-members who are still looking to stay engaged with WEDI. Also, I’m excited to share that for 2018, we’ve decided to take a different approach to our sponsorship offerings. Instead of WEDI telling you how you can get engaged, we want to collaborate with you, so together we can build a custom package – tailored to your specific needs – to enhance your engagement at our 2018 events!

Now is the time to secure the sponsorship opportunities that are right for your organization, while increasing your presence at upcoming WEDI events. Contact me today at mdowney@wedi.org or (202) 618-8803 to begin the first step.

— Matthew Downey
Associate, Membership and Business Development
WEDI
All of our workgroups have special projects and activities underway, here’s just a brief highlight of a few:

Join the NEW Claim Status Subworkgroup. The Claim Status SWG is focused on the exchange of claim status request/response (276/277), the business issues that prevent its adoption and potential ROI savings for both providers and health plans. Payers bring the top 10 claim issues that require rejections and why providers still call on these claim issues. Providers bring the top 10 claim issues you need to still call on rejected claims. Sign up for the WEDI-ClaimStatus@lists.wedi.org and plan to participate in the active discussion on Friday, March 3 at Noon ET.

The Innovative Encounters Workgroup has submitted a proposal for the next work product – a telehealth resources guide. Join the workgroup to contribute your suggestions on the types of resources that you would like included in the guide. Current resource categories include state and federal regulatory and legislative resources, trade associations and specialty societies as well as studies on the topic.

The Acknowledgements Subworkgroup has identified eight pain points associated with the 277CA and the 999 transactions. The subworkgroup is working on survey questions to help prioritize the pain points for future issue briefs or white papers. We’re looking for feedback from all participants within the industry to the survey. If anyone would like to help us provide clarity to the 999 and 277CA transactions please join our subworkgroup on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month from 2:00 – 3:00 EST.  

The Eligibility & Benefits Subworkgroup has submitted a proposal to survey the industry regarding barriers to adoption of 270/271 transactions. Information from the survey will be used to focus the subworkgroup’s efforts on addressing these hurdles. We plan to have information collected and ready to share by the May 21-23 National Conference.

The Claim Subworkgroup has started its new project exploring the topic of encounter reporting. So far, the group has had engaging discussions about what “encounters” are and how to define them. We are focusing on capturing the various scenarios in which information from a patient’s clinical encounter is reported for a purpose other than immediate reimbursement. We invite anyone who is doing or interested in encounters to join our calls on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month at 11 am ET.
Health Plans/Systems
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Technology Solutions/Vendors
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
HR Announcements
 
 
If you are a WEDI Corporate Member organization and would like to have your press releases included in a future edition of the WEDI Monthly Newsletter, please email with a link to your press release to tom@andersoni.com. 
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) is the leading authority on the use of health IT to improve healthcare information exchange in order to enhance the quality of care, improve efficiency and to reduce costs of the American healthcare system. Formed in 1991 by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), WEDI was named in the 1996 HIPAA legislation as an advisor to HHS and continues to fulfill that role today.
WEDI | (202) 618-8788 | wedi@wedi.org | wedi.org