Peter Christensen Health Center, part of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in north-central Wisconsin, has seen a 35 percent jump in revenue over five years, thanks in part to its EHR and billing system.
Open since the ‘60s, the health center offers a full range of family treatments including dental, podiatry, optometry, pharmacy and community-based services. The clinic, subsidized by the Lac du Flambeau tribe to the tune of more than $1 million, provides healthcare services to its members and employees.
In 2005 the clinic switched from a resource and patient management system, a government-owned and developed system that is used at many Indian health centers, to the Intergy electronic health record from Tampa, Fla.-based Sage Healthcare.
At that time, the RPMS version the clinic had been using didn’t have the ability to bill third-party claims, according to the clinic’s IT manager and clinical coordinator, Michael Popp. As the tribes brought in more employees through casinos, this created a problem for tracking claims, he said.
It took the clinic about two years to clean the data from its old billing system. “The loan (for the EHR) was paid off in about six months’ worth of income. That’s how bad a shape the billing was in,” Popp said.
To help stabilize finances, the clinic also purchased a custom reporting tool from Sage.
“To dig and report as deep as we do has really helped us,” said Popp. “Now anytime we send a patient to a private healthcare provider we use our system to track the referral and those dollars.”
Once the clinic had control of its insurance billing and accounts receivables and was getting paid, it could look at other ways to generate income. The next step – opening the clinic up to underserved patients.
Without this reporting capability, Popp said, “We would never be able to show that there was extra capacity within scheduling and our providers to absorb extra patients without conflict with our Native American patients, adding more income to our clinic.”
Projections generated from these reporting capabilities showed that the clinic could eliminate the subsidy from the tribe, said Popp.
This past April, the clinic moved to a new facility and opened its doors to the public. Popp said the clinic should end up with a surplus for FY2010.
“Peter Christiansen Clinic has become a case study for other Indian health centers who are looking to see how they can do this and how they can do it successfully,” said
Scott Rupp, manager of public relations at Sage Healthcare.
“Without a reporting tool to do what we did, we would be dead in the water. (The EHR system) has helped us generate and save money,” said Popp.
It has also helped Peter Christiansen move toward more preventive care. For example, Popp said, the EHR has allowed them to track chronic diseases that are common to Native Americans, like high blood pressure and diabetes.
“The EHR provides a phenomenal record for us to help us help our patients get the healthcare they need. I like to think that we’re improving each of our patient’s quality of life,” said Adrienne Laverdure, the clinic’s medical director.