Roxanne Chamberlain Attended the AHLA Annual Meeting

In June, Roxanne Chamberlain, MBA, FACHE, FMSP, CPMSM, CPCS, Senior Director of Medical Staff Services at Baystate Health, Inc. and 2019 NAMSS President-Elect, attended the American Healthcare Lawyers Association (AHLA) Annual Meeting in Boston, MA. Health law professionals attend the meeting each year for the most current information and analysis on a variety of legal issues affecting the healthcare industry. The annual meeting included thoughtful, practical, solution-oriented sessions, luncheons, and networking events.

John P. Ryan, President and Managing Partner, Hall Render Killian Health & Lyman PC and Heather Brace, Senior VP and Chief People Officer, Intermountain Healthcare, delivered the Meeting’s keynote address, The Future of the Health Care Workforce. The keynote session focused on the leading influences affecting the healthcare industry and their potential legal challenges. Experienced health law professionals facilitated breakout sessions on practice-management topics, top-physician compensation risk areas, understanding and addressing conflicts of interest at non-profit organizations, and coping with the mystery and reality of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.

Roxanne attended many of the Meeting’s AI learning sessions, which included AI liability, and how it could affect the standard of care in medical malpractice cases, as well as how AI bedside assistance will simplify doctor and nurse workloads. Roxanne also attended sessions about healthcare policy and hazard prevention where she learned that efforts to reduce healthcare costs have made little progress, as states continue to file lawsuits regarding the Affordable Care Act. Additional sessions surrounded topics on practitioner conscious clauses and hospital-acquired infection reduction rates in 2018-2019.

Drug price transparency was another popular topic, as well as how states and the federal government are combating rising drug prices. Nine states have passed drug-price transparency laws and seven other states are in the process of passing legislation.

Roxanne also attended sessions related to healthcare data and telehealth and noted that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce continues to call for a federal data privacy law due to inconsistent state laws and the number of data breeches. The healthcare sector continues to embrace digital invocations as consumer demand increases. Healthcare law professionals recommended that hospitals take an interdisciplinary team approach to implementing telehealth proposals and their legal staffs should have multi-faceted telehealth competencies to handle with regulatory issues.

As NAMSS liaison to AHLA, Roxanne stands by as a resource to the membership and is available to answer additional questions or provide additional information about AHLA.

A Conversation with Dr. Peter Hill, 2019 CVO Excellence Symposium Keynote Speaker

The CVO Excellence Symposium, the first event designed for MSPs who work in credentials verification organizations (CVO), is a two-day event focusing on the crucial discussions related to the state of the CVO, exploring topics such as staffing models, legal and regulatory issues, technology and innovation, and streamlining processes from the top-down. NAMSS recently sat down with Dr. Peter Hill, the Symposium’s keynote speaker, who serves as the Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs for the Johns Hopkins Health System and Vice President of Medical Affairs/Chief Medical Officer for the Johns Hopkins Hospital, to discuss what he’ll cover in his keynote presentation:

1. Can you give a small preview of what you’ll be covering in your keynote presentation at the NAMSS CVO Symposium?

·        How health systems are embracing the ongoing challenges in healthcare.

·        Impact of telehealth services and the impact on credentialing these practitioners within a health system

·        Credentialing the “Virtual doctor/practitioner” and its impact within patient safety and quality

2. What are some of the primary challenges you’re looking to address in your keynote?

·        Developing delineation of privileges, credentialing criteria, and meaningful FPPE/OPPE for the use of artificial intelligence and the virtual doctor.

·        Onboarding practitioners in a timely manner within the hospitals and provider enrollment.  It is extremely important in today’s market that practitioners are “billable” on their effective start date.

·        Revenue cycle management begins with credentialing.

3. Why is the NAMSS CVO Symposium important for MSPs to attend?

The CVO Symposium is important for MSPs to attend as it provides focused knowledge on best practices utilized within various health system CVOs.  We learn from each other.  It is an opportunity to ask questions, network, and collaborate with one another or strategize to move organizations forward and provide safe care to our patients. 

4. Are you seeing a greater need for programming specific to CVOs in the larger MSP community?

Yes, as more and more health systems develop central credentialing or central verification offices, it is important for MSPs to learn from one another on various aspects of moving the profession, their specific organization and healthcare forward.  We are all working together to navigate the ever-changing world of health care.  By sharing knowledge with one another, we can all learn to become more lean and efficient while safe guarding our patients.

5. What do you hope MSPs will take away from your keynote address?

First and foremost, that we are all in this together.   Healthcare is continuing to change and MSPs are at the forefront of patient safety.  With the emergence of digital healthcare and ongoing issues with “access,” I hope MSPs take away that they have a voice and opportunity to make a difference in their health system by working collaboratively with their leadership and feel empowered to share their innovative ideas.  There is never a dull day working in healthcare and by networking and collaborating with one another, we can make a difference.

The 2019 NAMSS CVO Excellence Symposium takes place October 19-20 at the Philadelphia Marriot Downtown in Philadelphia, PA. Register today.