Approximately five years ago, Amber Specialty Pharmacy began using SectyrHub® LicenseTrak® compliance software to manage accreditations, report on incidents, and track the expiration and renewal of professional and facility licenses. Before tapping SectyrHub LicenseTrak, Amber Specialty Pharmacy managed these tasks manually with spreadsheets, to-do lists, and written reminders.
Intrepid USA, Inc., which does business as Intrepid USA Healthcare Services, is a national company with a local perspective, providing personal care, healthcare at home, palliative and supportive care, and hospice-at-home services. Intrepid provides care through more than 60 care centers across 14 states. To keep patients living independently in their homes, Intrepid offers an array of services (e.g., pre-, and post-operative care, hygiene, companionship, medication management, housekeeping, and hospice). According to Intrepid’s website, employees and leaders commit themselves to a comprehensive compliance program including education, training, and monitoring for delivering quality services. Before implementing SectyrHub® LicenseTrak® compliance management software, Intrepid staff members say the company relied on computer spreadsheets and handwritten reminders. At each of the Texas-based company’s locations, an Intrepid staffer would have to enter a primary contact for a business license, document… Read More »Intrepid USA saves hours of work, prevents financial penalties by managing licenses with SectyrHub LicenseTrak
Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Avera Health serves patients across South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Dakota through its 37 hospitals, 215 clinics, 40 senior living facilities and more. The integrated health system cares for nearly one million patients across 72,000 square miles. As the health ministry of the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton, S.D., and the Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen, S.D., Avera encourages its 20,000 employees to live by the Gospel values of compassion, hospitality, and stewardship. Although Avera’s tagline is “moving health forward,” Avera Pharmacies, part of Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center, found moving forward with license renewals arduous. Struggling to track licensing, accreditations, and incidents With spreadsheets, paper checklists and manual tabulations, the pharmacy tracked critical license renewals largely by hand. The pharmacy’s compliance coordinator felt the system would eventually fail in… Read More »Avera taps Sectyr LicenseTrak for compliance trifecta
Managing a 340B program and ensuring continuous compliance takes resources beyond consultants and third-party administrators. A 340B program manager can sign up a consultant to run an annual integrity audit and tap multiple TPAs to review transactions. But neither can help a manager achieve around-the-clock compliance. For a 340B program manager, compliance management software forms a critical triangle with consultants and TPAs. Compliance management software offers up-to-the-minute tracking of where a program’s problems lie. While compliance software won’t fix a problem, it’s a tool that consultants, TPAs, and 340B program teams can use to spot problems. In fact, the 340B program manager for a Midwest university medical center recently told us that his compliance management software “does the thinking and reminding to keep us true to [our program] plan, so we’re audit-ready.” There are many… Read More »Who’s responsible for 340B program compliance?
Compliance software is one solution for providing a program with sustainability. A good solution will help a 340B program team define its process within the software. Software like this can also alert stakeholders to tasks, deadlines, and report on the status of all manner of compliance-related work.
Well-designed compliance software will also help a 340B program team cover every area of compliance that the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration wants to see. If a 340B program team has a deficiency, compliance software will let them know about it.
One way to reallocate time is with compliance software. With software that automatically analyzes and tracks the data HRSA auditors require, managers gain efficiency while keeping their 340B program in good standing. With a software system keeping tabs on what must be done, 340 program managers can focus on strategies for enhancing their 340B program instead of shoring up compliance.
With compliance software, a 340B Program director has a digital dashboard to keep score seven days a week, 365 days a year. A digital scoreboard gives a program director an automatic, up-to-the-minute look at the status of, for example, self-audits, OPAIS data, and tasks requiring attention. Compliance software stretches a team’s resources.
By automating the management of documents with compliance software, a director can assign tasks to each responsible party and verify the owner completes the job. Accountability is further improved when each team member can see their tasks, what’s expected, and when it’s due. Visibility is equally important for compliance. And in my next post, I’ll explore the role visibility plays for compliance.
Implementing a compliance software system standardizes the analysis and tracking of 340B Program data required by auditors from HRSA. Not all compliance software systems are equal, though. If standardization is the aim, a manager will also want a system that includes logic-based, 340B-specific workflows for monitoring recertifications and corrective plans. It’s important to have a tool for imposing a structure and for visible and well-defined workflows.
Nearly every healthcare CFO whose organization participates in the 340B Drug Pricing Program is familiar with (and understands) the risks associated with non-compliance. What most misunderstand is the severity of the cost of non-compliance. For example, the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration requires 340B Program participants to ensure pharmaceutical makers aren’t giving duplicate discounts on drugs provided to 340B covered entities. If a 340B covered entity unwittingly submitted such claims the organization would have to pay back, potentially, millions of dollars to the drug maker. A penalty hurts for two reasons: 1) the possible size of the repayment, especially since most covered entities run on a thin profit margin, hovering around three percent, and 2) the time lapse between the claim error and discount repayments (i.e., the covered entity has generally closed its books… Read More »Do you have real-time situational awareness of 340B financial risks?