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JULY - SEPTEMBER 2006 NEWSLETTER
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Education Event Jan 19 – 21, 2007. Please save these dates on your calendar.
We are in the planning stages of our third annual education event to be held at the Prairie’s Edge Conference Center. The first day and a half, Friday & Saturday, will be focused on clinic and hospital
oriented education while the third day, Sunday, will be focused mainly on Pharmacy oriented education. All physicians, NPs, PAs, RNs, LPNs, and pharmacists are welcome to attend any presentation on any day.
We would still like more ideas from pharmacy members as to topics they are interested in and speakers they recommend we approach.
This is a real opportunity for specialists and other physicians to present topics on their areas of expertise and interests and, frankly, market their services to other clinics in the region. We will
be accepting proposed presentations from people interested in speaking through August 31, 2006.
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Miscellaneous:
Central Minnesota Health Information Network (CMHIN):
MRHC members that did not participate with our AHRQ HIT planning grant activities (10/04 - 1/06) may be able to utilize the CMHIN grant that we are participating in. We are on the Board of CMHIN project
and we are trying to wrap this up by doing benchmark and other HIT project analysis work for providers in the region. Given our involvement in the CMHIN, and the fact that some of you didn’t participate in MRHC's
AHRQ project, CMHIN is offering the opportunity to let you participate in this project.
The details aren't finalized but the following is what is planned at this point:
1) Inventory assessment of what you have now (hardware, software, staff, etc)
2) Operational priorities - SWOT analysis
3) Review of your current HIT plans for 2006 & 2007
4) Up to date commentary of current local HIT industry and options (what is good, bad, or ugly).
Contact us soon if you are interested in participating in this project.
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Clinic Manager Meetings. In an effort to boost participation we are going to change the scheduling to coincide with the quarterly
Quality meetings, with the Clinic Manager meetings being in the morning and the Clinic Quality meetings that afternoon. This should make attending both meetings more efficient. For example, the next Clinic Manager
meeting will be held in Montevideo October 18th (10:00am – noon) with the Clinic Quality meeting to follow at 1:00 pm. Teleconference options will be available during the Clinic Manager meeting.
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New fax setup: Due to problems with our fax being part of our phone hunt-group, which made it impossible for some of you to send to it successfully, we have placed it on a dedicated line. The
number remains 320-564-9203.
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Quality Corner – Paula Soine, Quality Manager
I’m a natural born multi-tasker, but this summer has me really putting it to the test. Clinic site visits are conducted every two years as part of
the credentialing process. Many thanks go to Drs. C. Leonard Ho (Marshall Eye Clinic), Lyle Munneke (formerly from Family Practice Medical Center), and Angel Overvold (Wheaton Community Medical Center) for
generously agreeing to serve as Medical Directors for the chart review part of the process. Fifty-five clinics and 3,037 miles later, I finished the last one just last week. It has been such a delight to visit with
these fine people at these splendid facilities. There hasn’t been a clinic visit I haven’t enjoyed yet; I just wish I had more time!
When I wasn’t off doing site visits, there’s a good chance I’m involved in some aspect of the HCAHPS surveys. We’ve got six facilities involved in
the Dry Run, and Sandy, Jamie, and I are getting the steady data and stream of processes down to a fine-tuned routine. If you are one of the facilities participating in the Dry Run, I can tell you what your response
rates are at any given time. For instance, the return rates for the second quarter Dry Run range for all facilities is between 41.0% and 55.1%, with four over 51% and an average return rate of 49.4%, and the surveys
continue to come in. Not too shabby! After the completion of the Dry Run, which should be the latter part of August, data collection for the initial publicly reported data will begin in Fall 2006. Three quarters of
data will be collected prior to public reporting. Until the next phase starts in the fall, five of the six facilities have opted to continue using us to send out their surveys and collect their patient specific
data. The sixth would like us to contact them in the fall to pick up where they left off after the Dry Run ended.
Thanks to all who were involved in getting the quarterly complaints and QI reports in to me either on or ahead of time. It amounts to about 86
reports with a lot of information to compile and then turn right around and send back the results showing how each facility did and get done before our quarterly Council meeting. I know everyone else wears about as
many hats in their organizations as I do so I appreciate everyone getting their reports in to me on time. Sometimes it’s hard to keep all those balls juggling in the air! First quarter Reward winners were: Linda
Wohlenhaus (Stanley Gallagher, DO, PA – Wheaton); Stacey Zondervan (Family Practice Medical Center – Willmar); Cheryl Reiniger (Sleepy Eye Medical Center); Judy Kruize (Eleah Medical Center – Elbow Lake); and Corla
Enevoldsen (Lac qui Parle Medical Center – Madison – a first time winner!). Thanks again for all you do for me and for your facilities.
Quality is Everybody’s Responsiblity
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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 Paula Soine
at (320) 564-9118 (ext. 12) or psoine@mrhc.net.
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Minnesota Rural Health Cooperative
Meeting Schedule
- July 4 Independence Day
- July 12 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- July 13 Contracting Committee Meeting
- July 17 Credentialing Teleconference
- July 18 Medica Quality meeting
- July 19 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- July 19 Quality Council Quarterly Meeting
- July 20 Clinic Managers Meeting
- July 20 Contracting Teleconference
- July 20 Board of Directors Meeting
- July 26 SWEPT Meeting
- July 26 MMGMA summer meeting
- August 2 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- August 2 Medi-Sota Board Meeting
- August 9 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- August 10 Contracting Committee Meeting
- August 16 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- August 21 Credentialing Teleconference
- August 23 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- August 24 Board of Directors Meeting
- August 30 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- September 4 Labor Day
- September 6 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- September 6 Medi-Sota Board Meeting
- September 13 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- September 14 Contracting Committee Meeting
- September 18 Credentialing Teleconference
- September 20 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- September 27 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- September 28 Clinic Managers Meeting
- September 28 Board of Directors Meeting
- September 29 Daylight Savings Time ends
- October 4 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- October 4 Medi-Sota Board Meeting
- October 11 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- October 12 Contracting Committee Meeting
- October 18 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- October 18 Quality Council Quarterly Meeting
- October 19 Compliance Committee Meeting
- October 23 Credentialing Teleconference
- October 25 Pharmacy Contracting Teleconference
- October 26 Board of Directors Meeting
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2006 Board Members
Larry Grong, D.O., Lac qui Parle Clinic– Madison– Chair
James Schulte, Administrator, Redwood Area Hospital – Vice Chair
Glenn Haugo, Administrator, Johnson Memorial Health Services - Dawson - Secretary/Treasurer
Brendon Cullinan, M.D., Montevideo Clinic
John Doidge, VP – Glencoe Regional Health Services (new)
George Gordon, M.D., Rice Memorial Hospital – Willmar (new)
Mark Huntington, M.D., Northside Medical Center - Ortonville
Romulo Kabatay, M.D., Appleton Clinic
David Koster, Pharmacist, Koster Pharmacy –Tyler
Carol Lang, MD – Murray County Clinic (new)
Tim Middendorf, Administrator, Renville County Hospital (new)
Alan Roiseland M.D., Family Practice Medical Center-Willmar
Thomas Witt, Pharmacist, Witt’s Pharmacy –Rushford
Note that Drs. Brendon Cullinan and Mark Huntington will be leaving us this fall for greener pastures. Dr. Cullinan will be replaced on the Board
by his colleague Patrick Hanna. Dr. Huntington will be replaced on the Board by his colleague Dr. Allan Ross. They did great work for the Board and the Co-op and they will be dearly missed.
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Contracting update: Due to the confidential nature of MRHC contracts with
the various health providers, we can’t put contract negotiation information on this website. Please contact the MRHC office for this information.
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Potential New Grants:
We would like to be the grantee or coordinator on these grants:
Minnesota e-Health Initiative Grant (http://health.state.mn.us/e-health/grntprgrm0607/index.html)
The Minnesota e-Health Initiative grant's basics:
Grants are available only for collaborative (with 3 or more distinct/separate members – possibly identified as separate if unique TINs)
Each collaborative can apply for only one type of grant (assessment/planning - $50,000, or implementation - $250,000)
Matching - for every $1 provided by collaborative - $3 provided by state/grant
Invoice/billing - can be monthly as work is completed
We believe we can handle applying for 4 - 5 different projects at once.
Tight timeframes to apply: a) Bidder's teleconference August 24, 2006; b) Letters of intent
by September 15, 2006; c) Application by October 12, 2006
Healthier Minnesota Community Clinic Fund Grant (http://www.minnesotacommunityclinicfund.org)
In 2006, the Foundation will award approximately $1.3 million in Traditional Community Clinic competitive grants to eligible organizations.
The grants will be of one or two years and up to $100,000 per year. Applications are due September 15, 2006. The Foundation will consider Traditional Community Clinic grant proposals from eligible organizations that
provide primary care clinical services to low-income people, communities of color, or the medically underserved in Minnesota. Proposals must be for the provision of direct primary care clinical services,
program or project development, and capital projects.
After talking to their staff I believe we could develop a system that will be able to reimburse, to a degree, for uncompensated care that many are
seeing more of. Organizations with sliding fee schedules or who provide free care will get priority. We will work with interested clinics to hopefully develop a fundable project.
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Pharmacy Stuff
Pharmacy contracting: Due to the confidential nature of MRHC contract with
the various PBMs we can’t put contract negotiation information on this website. Please contact the MRHC office for this information.
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New staff: We have added some staff resources in this area in the form of Jamie Miller. We hired Jamie about four months ago, but shortly after she started with us she was out on maternity leave. She has been back with us for the past month and the benefit of her assistance is quite noticeable. Working with PBMs is quite time intensive as you all know, and having her focus on that will create real results. Call her first with PBM issues.
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USDA Rural Utility Service Telemedicine grant.
We applied on June 12th, 2006 for a $362,985 federal grant to supplement participating member contributions (match) of $64,056. We
intend to use these funds to create and install robust telepharmacy systems that 12 members will use to extend out into 14 other communities. This project is interesting on several levels:
This will provide local store based pharmacy access to patients in communities that are simply too small to sustain a regular size pharmacy
We hope it will provide enough additional volume, produced in a low cost setting, which will help offset the declining reimbursements folks
are getting. Will increase the average daily scripts above the breakeven point so costs are covered
This may create a remote relief system by pharmacies in the telepharmacy network where a pharmacist in one main store can cover a main
pharmacy owned by someone else as long as they have a compatible telepharmacy system
A potential long term benefit will be the development and refinement of technology that may be used by our hospital members if CMS
continues to pursue a mandate of 24/7 pharmacy coverage for hospitals. The only way this would be accomplished is through telepharmacy.
North Dakota currently has 57 telepharmacy sites and has seen all of the benefits without the feared downside. If nothing else, if we win this
grant 12 of our members will get $427,000 of telepharmacy equipment for 15 cents on the dollar.
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Southwest Minnesota Rural Pharmacy Network Development Project:
We have been involved with this project for the past year. This effort included several survey and town meetings which both provided us some
insight as to the perceived pharmacy problems in SW Minnesota and provided a chance to educate attendees of the town meetings. Many people were surprised at the level of stress pharmacies are under and the potential
impact to their communities if they were to close.
We are considering pursuing a 3 year $200,000/year Rural Network Development grant to pursue projects to improve pharmacist’s financial picture,
continue educating people regarding the plight of rural pharmacy, and to improve new pharmacist recruitment and retention in rural areas. This grant is due December 2006.
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Drug Discount Card:
We are forging ahead with our new drug discount card which we plan to call “Smart Rx” card. It will be processed by Pharmaceutical Technologies,
Inc. We believe it will do the following:
provide a new income stream for our members
provide a new income stream for the Co-op which may offset those participating member’s annual membership dues
prevent other drug discount cards from gaining local market significance
start building relationships with local employers
start building processing experience that, when combined with our new relationships with employers, will enable us to make the leap to becoming
our own PBM in the not too distant future
We hope to have this in place by September 2006.
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Buying Group:
We have decided to focus on Smart Fill as our preferred buying group vendor. The benefits are many and will be laid out in greater detail during a
teleconference that we will schedule during an upcoming Tuesday evening.
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Political Activities:
Normally MRHC doesn’t interact with politicians but that changed recently when some opportunities presented themselves. As you may recall, we, and
several of our members, met with Sen. Norm Coleman and discussed concerns during a Rural Health Summit in Montevideo on March 22nd. This was followed up when MRHC Board member Tom Witt met with Sen.
Coleman in Caledonia on July 6th (see photo). This was followed up yet again when Rep. Gil Gutknecht met with folks at Astrup Drug in Austin on August 9th. The message we have been hearing is
that while they understand our financial concerns, they are supportive of Medicare D and other programs that reduce drug prices for patients. They do, however, seem very supportive of other activities that may help
pharmacists, such as the telepharmacy grant that Sen. Coleman sent a letter in support of. Also, maybe due in part to our actions, MPhA has been getting much more interaction from Sen. Coleman’s office lately. We
will continue to let MPhA take the lead on political action but will act in addition to them as the opportunities arise.
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