Early November in Washington state is a beauty to behold. Tammy Norville, NOSORH Technical Assistance Director, had the opportunity to partner with the Washington State Office of Rural Health to provide a half-day interdisciplinary team education session grounded in palliative care services. The live session was on location in Dayton, Washington, and simulcast to Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) and other partners around the state.
The session was a journey through the revenue cycle and explored options to ensure the sustainability of palliative care services in an environment with no straightforward payment structure while continuing to transition to value. A lunch session with the host organization and an onsite visit with one CAH rounded out the visit.
The top three takeaways from the experience:
- Community-based providers are in need of in-depth, nuts and bolts assistance and they are willing to lose provider time to strengthen operational efficiencies.
- Community-based providers are providing services that their patients need – regardless of reimbursement structure. The sweet spot is finding a way to cover expenses associated with these services within the given documentation, coding and billing guidelines.
- This project provided NOSORH the opportunity to come alongside the SORH, providing support and building their capacity, while enhancing the capacity of the participating organizations.
Thank you to the Washington SORH team of Pat Justis, Lindy Vincent, and Kassie Clarke, who coordinated the event and was an outstanding tour guide.
If you have an interest in this or other technical assistance projects, please contact Tammy Norville (tammyn@nosorh.org), Technical Assistance Director.