INGENIX CHARGEMASTER ANALYZER SOFTWARE
Under a marketing arrangement with Ingenix (St. Anthony/Medicode/CHIPS), St. Clair is not only selling its Chargemaster Analyzer software (Software) to Hospitals, but also using the Software in the performance of our Comprehensive and Maintenance CDM reviews.
Since its market introduction by Ingenix in the summer of 2000, the Software has had a number of significant upgrades. St. Clair uses Ingenix’s "license fee" schedule in pricing the Software, which operates on a personal computer.During each year of the license agreement, Ingenix provides quarterly "Software edit" updates of the CDM regulatory/coding changes in advance of the effective dates. Ingenix makes available Software technical support, if needed, to assist the Hospital with importing the CDM and charge usage statistics, from an Excel spreadsheet, to run within the Software and with exporting the change entries to modify the CDM. Also, Ingenix provides frequent educational sessions, on how to use the Software, via a WebEx/conference call hook-up.
By running its CDM against the comprehensive Software edits, the Hospital receives system reports, which flag incorrect "CPT/HCPCS and Revenue" codes and questionable modifier assignments, recommend correct alternative replacements, and provide CMS’s National Correct Code Initiative (CCI) reference. The Software provides a "side by side" comparison of your line item descriptions with the "AMA approved" CPT descriptions and identifies duplicate CDM line items with the same CPT code. By means of the Software, St. Clair is able to provide the Hospital with the following additional reports: Best Practices Report for each ancillary department as to "missing" CPT/HCPCS codes; comparison of the Hospital charges with the current "regionally adjusted" Medicare APC payment rates & fees; and inquiry reports, comparing the Hospital "outpatient charge" line items with the 2003 average price & cost MEDPAR data for all hospitals in its Metropolitan Statistical Area.
To best understand its user-friendly features, we recommend viewing the free Software demonstration, via a WebEx/conference call hook-up with Ingenix, which St Clair will arrange. The many important features range from chargemaster code crosswalks and CCI edits to Medicare payment tables and quarterly updates…from CDM data sort capabilities, line by line compliance validation and manual "edit override" capability to code browsing and research…from issue resolution and user documentation notes to audit trail, export and reporting.