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APRIL - JUNE 2004
Newsletter
AHRQ grant
We are currently in the process of applying for a $200,000 Health Information Technology (HIT) federal planning grant. This grant has an
application deadline of April 22, 2004. Nineteen hospitals and seventeen clinic members plan to participate in this 12-18 month project. The Granite Falls Municipal Hospital and Manor will assist MRHC in applying
for the grant by being the fiscal agent for the grant. MRHC will do all of the paperwork. MRHC will handle the grant but participating members will be the ones benefiting.
If this grant is awarded, the money will be spent in the following manner: 1) up to $20,000 may be spent on software or hardware; 2) funds to
pay for 30% time and travel of Chuck Ness, the Project Coordinator; 3) additional time and travel of other committee personnel. This is a grant heavily weighted towards paying for personnel time which makes sense as
it is ostensibly for planning. Note there is no requirement for matching funds from participants. This is truly a no lose situation for participants. If we are awarded this grant, MRHC will most likely be hiring
another staff person to help share the added work load.
This is a planning grant that will produce benchmark HIT information and a comprehensive HIT strategic plan for the region. As part of this
process, participants will receive individual benchmark HIT information and an individual HIT strategic plan. In addition to the valuable
information developed for immediate use this will also provide information to be used during the anticipated HIT implementation grant application.
The HIT implementation grant has potential for up to $500,000 per year for up to three years. The implementation grant allows participants to use
much more of their grant money on computer hardware and software. Our goal is that if we are awarded the HIT planning grant we will execute that grant with an eye towards applying for the HIT implementation grant.
To apply for the HIT implementation grant, applicants would need to have done the extensive strategic planning that is the intended outcome of the planning grant.
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Bioterrorism Emergency Preparedness (HRSA) Grant Money Available for SW MN Medical Clinics
All of the co-op member clinics, within a territory south and west of Kandiyohi County to the South Dakota and Iowa borders (does not include
Grant, Traverse, Stevens, Stearns, and McLeod counties), are eligible to apply for money already received by the SW MN Emergency Preparedness group. There is currently $80,000 that needs to be spent by interested
clinics in ways they determine most necessary by September 2004. While not finalized, it appears that only clinics from the SW region that participate in the planning will be able to access these funds. Also, these
current funds may be just the beginning of the amounts potentially available if it is determined that more resources are needed.
Three things need to be stressed regarding this project. First, if patients become sick they may come into clinics first as they have been
trained to do. Second, if a crisis occurs each facility will essentially need to look out for themselves for 3-5 days. Third, all interested clinics need to do to receive these funds is to be involved and attend a
few meetings as the bulk of the work has already been done by others.
For more info check out http://www.health.state.mn.us/terrorism.html. Call with questions.
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Minnesota Rural Health Cooperative Meeting Schedule
- April 7 Medi-Sota
- April 8 Contracting Committee Meeting
- April 11 Easter
- April 15 Compliance Quarterly Meeting
- April 19 Credentialing Teleconference
- April 21 Quality Council Quarterly Meeting
- April 22 MRHC Annual Meeting Granite Falls
- May 5 Medi-Sota
- May 6 Contracting Committee Meeting
- May 11 Clinic Managers Meeting
- May 17 Clinic Bioterrorism Meeting
- May 17 Credentialing Teleconference
- May 20 Board of Directors Meeting
- May 26 Medi-Sota Picnic
- May 27 Medi-Sota Strategic Planning Meeting
- May 31 Memorial Day
- June 2 Medi-Sota
- June 3 Contracting Committee Meeting
- June 21 First Day of summer
- June 21 Credentialing Teleconference
- June 24 Board of Directors Meeting
- July 1 Contracting Committee Meeting
- July 5 Independence Day Observed
- July 13 Clinic Managers Meeting
- July 15 Compliance Quarterly Meeting
- July 19 Credentialing Teleconference
- July 21 Quality Council Quarterly Meeting
- July 22 Board of Directors Meeting
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Visit our website for meeting times and places at www.mrhc.net.
If you need a user ID and password, please contact Sandy Boehne
at (320)-564-9118 ext 10 or sboehne@mrhc.net
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Current Membership
Clinics
Allergy & Asthma Specialty Clinic, Willmar
Appleton Medical Clinic
Counseling Associates of West Central MN, Benson
Divine Providence Clinic, Ivanhoe
Divine Providence Minneota Clinic
ELEAH Medical Center, Elbow Lake
Family Practice Medical Center of Willmar
Glencoe Regional Health Services
Hendricks Medical Clinic, P.A.
Ivanhoe Clinic
JMHS Dawson Clinic
Lac Qui Parle Clinic, Madison
Marshall Eye Clinic
Minnesota Pathologists Chartered, Willmar
Montevideo Clinic, P.A.
Murray County Clinic, Slayton
Northside Medical Center, Ortonville
Peter B. Meier, M.D., St. Paul
Prairie Family Practice Renville County, Olivia
Prairie Medical Associates, Morris
Rice Institute for Counseling & Education, Willmar
Rose Center for Women, Willmar
Sioux Valley Canby Campus Clinic
Southwest Ophthalmology Associates, Marshall
Stanley C. Gallagher, D.O., P.A., Wheaton
Tyler Medical Clinic
West Central Radiological Associates, Willmar
Williams IntegraCare Clinic, Sartell
Hospitals
Appleton Municipal Hospital & Home
Chippewa County Montevideo Hospital
Divine Providence Health Center, Ivanhoe
ELEAH Medical Center, Elbow Lake
Glencoe Regional Health Services Hospital
Granite Falls Municipal Hospital & Manor
Hendricks Community Hospital & Home
Johnson Memorial Health Services, Dawson
Madison Lutheran Home, Inc.
Meeker County Memorial Hospital, Litchfield New
Murray County Memorial Hospital, Slayton
Ortonville Area Health Services
Redwood Area Hospital
Renville County Hospital, Olivia
Rice Memorial Hospital, Willmar
Sioux Valley Canby Campus Hospital
Swift County Benson Hospital
Tyler Healthcare Center
Weiner Memorial Medical Center, Marshall
Wheaton Community Hospital
Non-Voting Members (NV)
Great Plains Eye Clinic, Ltd., Sioux Falls -- NV
Hennepin Facility Associates, Minneapolis – NV
Lake Area ENT, Watertown, SD – NV
LCM Pathologists, Sioux Falls, SD – NV
Lyle Munneke, MD, Willmar -- NV
Michael B. DeBrule, Marshall – NV
Rick L. Nissen, MD, Bloomington – NV
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MRHC contracting update
NOTE: Due to the confidential nature of MRHC contracts with the various health providers we can’t put contract negotiation information on this web site. Please contact the MRHC office for
this information.
Payer audit update
- We should have the payer audit completed in it’s entirety by the end of April. We may start releasing information sooner on a per health plan
basis. So far we have built spreadsheet data for 17 entities reviewing over 1,000 different CPT codes analyzing payments of 19 health plans and entering over 145,000 data fields.
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2004 Board Members
Brendon Cullinan, M.D., Montevideo Clinic - Chair
Larry Grong, D.O., Lac qui Parle Clinic– Madison– Vice Chair
Leroy Meyering, CFO, Rice Memorial Hospital – Secretary /Treasurer
Mark Huntington, M.D., Northside Medical Center – Ortonville
Romulo Kabatay, M.D., Appleton Clinic
Fred Knutson, Administrator, Chippewa County Montevideo Hospital
Dale Kruger, Administrator
, Tyler Healthcare Center
Richard Mulder, M.D., Ivanhoe Clinic
Tom Richter, Administrator, Madison Hospital
Alan Roiseland M.D., Family Practice Medical Center-Willmar
Dean Slagter, Administrator, Renville County Hospital
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Quality Corner
The two new QI projects that Primary Care Clinics decided to do in 2004 are PSAs and Hyperlipidemia. In the PSA project, the three
goals are to increase the percentage of men who are up-to-date with a PSA test; increase the provider referral rate for a PSA test; and increase the percentage of men with abnormal PSA levels to have follow-up.
Quality contacts on the PSA team are Karen Novotny (Family Practice Medical Center), Liz Sorenson (Northside Medical Center), and Corla Enevoldsen and Mary Kostad (both of Lac Qui Parle Clinic). The goals of the Hyperlipidemia QI project are to increase the percentage of patients with diabetes for whom recommended screening frequencies and ideal treatment goals are met; and decrease the percentage of patients with diabetes with poorly controlled blood sugars and cardiovascular risk factors. This project is the third year that clinics have been able to use the Diabetes Care software group purchased. Quality contacts on this team are Karen Novotny (Family Practice Medical Center), Judy Carruth (Appleton Medical Clinic), and Corla Enevoldsen (Lac Qui Parle Clinic). A big thank you to all the team members who generously volunteered their time to set up these quality projects! Both projects are underway with the baseline results due in April 15th.
Results from a questionnaire sent to all hospital quality contacts indicated that for now they preferred to keep the five patient
satisfaction surveys and the frequency they are distributed the same as they currently are conducted. Home Care results were recently sent to participants. Acute Care surveys are tabulated this
month.
The next Quality Council meeting is April 21st. Hospital contacts meet 10:30 to noon and Clinic contacts meet 1:00 to 2:30.
StratisHealth representatives will be at the Clinic meeting to give a presentation on hyperlipidemia, provide intervention ideas and other ways clinics can make this QI project a success.
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Pharmacy membership
We are currently investigating the prospect of adding a third membership class to MRHC. We were approached by the Minnesota
Pharmacy Association several months ago to possibly assist their members with problems that are strikingly similar to those that caused the original MRHC members to form the co-op in 1994. This new class, in
addition to the original classes of clinics and hospitals, would be limited to rural independent pharmacies. There are approximately 5,000 pharmacists in Minnesota. Of these pharmacists, approximately 2/3 are in
rural areas. Since we are planning to limit potential membership to pharmacies that are pharmacist owned, have more than 75% of the stores being located outside the 11-county metro area, and have fewer than 11
stores, we estimate the potential membership market is 1,500 – 2,000 pharmacists. A conservative estimate of initial membership is 100 – 200 pharmacies with an average 2.5 pharmacists at each pharmacy or 250 – 500
pharmacists.
If there is member interest, and we decide to add this new class of members, they will be given 1/3 representation on the Board and
on various applicable committees including contracting. They will be asked to purchase 1/3 of the common stock shares totaling $100,000 class C shares. Also, the estimated annual dues they will be asked to pay as a
class is $125,000 per year for each of the first two years (members will be asked to make a 2 year commitment). This budgeted amount represents an additional MRHC staff person and additional legal, consulting and
travel expenses. Efforts will be made to limit financial risk to existing MRHC members during this change.
We will be sending a letter of intent with approximate stock and dues cost information, in addition to other membership requirements, to prospective members in early April. The feedback we get will determine the real interest level and we
will then decide whether to proceed. While we do have verbal assurances from the state Department of Health, we want approval in writing prior to proceeding. We would also need approval from current MRHC
shareholders to change the existing MRHC bylaws to allow this additional member class to be created.
EMTALA seminar
Dr. George R. Gordon, who specializes in Emergency Medicine and is the Associate Administrator for Medical Affairs at Rice Memorial
Hospital in Willmar, has agreed to hold a regional seminar presenting information on the EMTALA law that became effective November 8, 2003. We will be letting people know of the exact time and place when that is
finalized.
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