Peter Christensen Health Center, an Indian health center that is 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 efficiencies brought out by its EHR and billing system.
Open since the '60s, the health center offers a full range of family medical services including dental services, podiatry services, an optometry dept., pharmacy services and a comprehensive range of community-based services.
The original purpose of the clinic, which was being subsidized by the Lac du Flambeau tribe for over $1 million, was to provide healthcare services to its members and its employees.
In 2005 the clinic switched from using a using Resource and Patient Management System (RPMS), a government-owned and developed system that is in place at many Indian health centers across the country, to an electronic heath record from Sage called Intergy.
At the time the clinic purchased Intergy, the RPMS version that it was using didn’t have the ability to bill third party claims, said 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.
Popp said it took Peter Christiansen 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," he added.
To help stabilize its 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 any time 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, said Popp.
The next step: opening the clinic up to underserved patients in the area.
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."
But the plan had to be approved by the tribal council, which took almost a year and a half. Projections generated from its new reporting capabilities showed that the clinic could eliminate the subsidy from the tribe, said Popp.
In April of this year, the clinic moved to a new facility, and opened its doors to the public. Today, the clinic is no longer subsidized and when Healthcare IT News spoke to Popp, the fiscal year for Peter Christiansen was coming to a close. Barring anything major, he said the clinic should end up with a surplus.
"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," added
Scott Rupp, manager of public relations at Sage Healthcare.
"Without reporting tool to do what we did, we would be dead in the water," said Popp. "[The EHR system] has helped us generate and save money."
It has also helped Peter Christiansen move towards more preventative care. For example, Popp says the EHR has allowed them to track preventative care measures that are common to Native Americans, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
"The EHR provides a phenomenal record for us to help us help our patients get the healthcare they need," said Adrienne Laverdure, medical director of the clinic. "I like to think that we’re improving each of our patients' quality of life."
