Moffitt Cancer Center (Moffitt) is a 206-bed hospital located in Tampa, Florida that is part of an elite group of National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the United States. Moffitt services includes private patient rooms, the Southeast’s largest Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, outpatient treatment programs that record more than 339,000 visits a year, the Moffitt Research Center, Moffitt Cancer Center at International Plaza, and Moffitt Cancer Center Screening and Prevention.
“We faced an overwhelming coding backlog when we hired JTS Health Partners. They provided on site management, credentialed/experienced coders and worked with our HIM Leadership to develop an aggressive plan to meet our goals. JTS coders are dedicated, talented HIM professionals in outpatient facility coding and in professional practice coding. We look forward to successful ICD-10 implementation with the assistance of JTS Health Partners.”
Ms. Daphne L. Chandler
Director of Health Information Management (Interim)
The Challenge
Based upon Moffitt’s operational volumes and comprehensive patient services, the organization needed to update its revenue cycle management system from Keane Revenue Cycle Management to Cerner's Siemens Soarian Financial Revenue Cycle Management in order to accommodate growth as well as address the “sun-setting” of Keane. A complicating implementation factor included a patient account file structure post-live redesign within Soarian which created a material coding backlog. Based upon the significant coding backlog, Moffitt’s Health Information Management (HIM) staff was required to seek professional HIM guidance and coding support to assist with this technology infrastructure redesign.
The Collaborative Approach
JTS Health Partners (JTS) provided HIM on-site project management and coding leadership. Moffitt and JTS jointly aligned with senior credentialed and qualified HIM professionals in order to develop an immediate and comprehensive plan. The plan represented a professional team that exceeded fifteen (15+) full time equivalents (FTEs) that became operational within thirty (30) days. Therefore, within sixty (60) days, JTS spearheaded a leadership team as it related to stabilizing and optimizing the coding performance within the Outpatient Facility Fee coding area of the HIM Department.
The Accomplishments
The barriers to success were addressed through key communication strategies (e.g., daily basis, etc.) that provided the appropriate operational support to accomplish Moffitt’s short-term and long-term goals and objectives. Through working directly with Moffitt’s supervisors of Outpatient Facility Fee coding and Professional Practice coding, JTS documented a complete work plan that became an achievable and successful operating plan.
JTS’s successful results are highlighted below:
- Implemented a quality assurance program that met Moffitt’s high standards
- Obtained subject matter expertise resulting in relevant and effective policies and procedures, and operational dashboards
- Accomplished successful in-depth testing to avoid minimal rework during coding education efforts
This Discharged not final billed (DNFB) work effort included the following results:
- DNFB - Beginning Balance:
- Total Dollars:~$67,900,000
- Total accounts: ~36,000
- DNFB - Ending Balance:
- Total Dollars:~$18,700,000
- Total accounts: ~9,000
- % decrease in DNFB over six (6) months:72%
"JTS Health Partners has provided qualified Professional Practice coding support to enable our team to maintain timeliness and quality in our coding responsibilities."