Winter 2012
Here’s What’s Happening!
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Happy New Year!!
A New Year Message
from our Executive
Vice President and
Chief Financial
Officer
Vol 3, Page 1
Baby news…
Congratulations to Rachel Graves and her
husband Derek on the birth of their son Mason
Richard. Mason was born on December 20th at
9:49pm weighing 7 lbs 3.6 ozs.
Finance Team –
Welcome to 2014! I hope you had a wonderful
holiday season and were fortunate to spend it
with family and friends. As we are already a
month into the New Year, I also hope you have
been able to keep most of your New Year’s
resolutions….so far.
Of course with every New Year we can expect
changes. Some changes we create and then
there are other people’s changes we have to
manage.
The changes expected of our industry have
never been greater or more significant to
Maryland health care systems. It is estimated
that 10% of the population consumes about
68% of all care resources. Given this fact,
hospitals are being asked to think very
differently about the role they play in
delivering care and how they can help reduce
the total cost of treating patients.
Of course, with our unique hospital rate setting
system Maryland hospitals will have a unique
response. One of the reasons our system is so
unique is the “all-payor” nature of the model.
The Health Services Cost Review Commission
(HSCRC) sets hospital rates for all payors…
even Medicare. This rate setting model results
from an agreement (“Waiver”) Maryland has
with Medicare to exempt Maryland hospitals
from the national reimbursement model.
See WELCOME 2014, page two
Moving in…
Please welcome the following new hires:
Ratina Burris – Decision Support
Alex Cossu – Decision Support
Alisha Mainor – Decision Support
Marian Harvin – Financial Reporting
Steve Kaminski – Reimbursement
Derrek Myers – Reimbursement
Steve Price – Reimbursement
Moving up…
Please congratulate Albert Zanger on his
recent promotion to Manager Case Mix and
Fred Herman in his new role of Director
Research Compliance
You were noticed…
Congratulations to Megan
Irwin for being one of the
first people in the country
to pass the Epic Research
Certification exam! Way
to go Megan!
Change is the law of life. And those who
look only to the past or present are certain
to miss the future.
President John F. Kennedy
Here’s What’s Happening!
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WELCOME 2014, continued from page one
After nearly a year long process, the HSCRC
has developed a revised agreement with
Medicare. The new waiver is a significant
departure from the old agreement which simply
focused on measuring the change in cost of care
for inpatient services. The new Waiver will
measure the “value” Maryland hospitals
contribute to the health care needs of the
population.
Value is created when needed services are
provided at an efficient cost and at a high
quality. While this concept seems straight
forward, it will require some new thinking and
actions by hospitals and physicians. One of the
goals of the new Waiver is to get health care
providers to ask new questions about their
patients care such as:
1. Are there options to treat patients other
than expensive inpatient hospital care.
2. Can that care be provided on an
outpatient basis?
3. Should we consider alternative nonhospital facilities to provide care?
4. How do we increase the consistency of
the care for those that do need to access
hospital services?
This approach to delivering care represents a
fundamental shift in how we think about our
communities and our patients.
In anticipation of these changes to our industry
we have reshaped the Medical System’s
Strategic Plan. There are now nine key
strategies:
1. Develop Population Health Capabilities
 Develop the ability to manage and
coordinate the care of select patient
populations
2. Provide Access to Ambulatory Care
 Develop an affordable and price
competitive network of UMMS
ambulatory care facilities
Winter 2012
Vol 3, Page 2
3. Enhance Clinical Integration
 Create greater clinical, economic
and structural alignment with our
physician partners to achieve shared
goals
4. Leverage Market Leading Clinical
Programs
 Differentiate System hospital
clinical programs through formal
clinical networks focused on
coordinated care, patient
experience, quality and a wellrecognized brand
5. Maintain and Increase Scale and
Geographic Reach
 Expand our Maryland footprint
through new relationships supported
by less capital intensive investments
(e.g. ambulatory care, physician
network, TeleHealth, management
services contracts)
6. Support a Workforce Dedicated to a
Culture of Excellence
 Ensure that the current UMMS
workforce and pipeline of future
talent:
- Are committed to delivering
the best patient experience
- Have the appropriate
education, skills and
competencies
7. Invest in Advanced Information
Technology
 To support clinical integration,
efficient operations and safe,
effective patient care
8. Improve Cost Structure Efficiency
 Focus on improving cost efficiency
and affordability through process
standardization and innovation to
improve productivity.
See WELCOME 2014, page three
Here’s What’s Happening!
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WELCOME 2014, continued from page two
9. Increase Philanthropy
 Due to constrained operating margins
and limits to debt capacity,
Philanthropy will remain a crucial
source of funds for strategic
investments
I am truly excited about our future and I am
positive we will succeed in this new health
care world. I believe our industry will evolve
significantly over the next three to five years
and UMMS will be a leader in that evolution!
The continued support, service and dedication
you provide to our hospitals will be critical to
our success.
I wish to thank you for all you do to make
UMMS a strong organization and a critical
part of our Maryland Community.
Sincerely,
Henry J. Franey
Executive Vice President &
Chief Financial Officer – UMMS
There’s Another
Grand Prix
Going On!
The Reimbursement and Revenue Advisory
Services (RRAS) group has been working
on a new pilot program called the Talent
Enrichment Program (“TEP”). This
program is RRAS’ next step in the
evolution of the Knowledge Development
Program (“KDP”), originally started by
Financial Reporting. TEP has been in the
works for 18 months and is finally coming
together. A key component of TEP is the
Individual Development Plan or IDP. In a
nutshell, the objectives of the IDP include
some of the following:
Winter 2012
Vol 3, Page 3
Establish a defined criterion for the
competencies, knowledge and skills that
are required to successfully accomplish
the work for which RRAS is responsible
Implement a system that is consistent
across all RRAS functions
Develop career paths for employees that
take combined individual interests with
departmental needs and organizational
strategy
Create a factually based feedback
system for employees and managers that
is ongoing, mutually beneficial, and
accounts for current accomplishments,
required performance standards,
anticipated opportunities and future
goals
Give the right combination of
ownership and support for
accomplishing career aspirations
Provide tools to measure progress
Every RRAS employee has to complete the
IDP “tool”, an electronic form that offers a
personalized look into the employee’s
proficiency level progression using data
from Competency & Function Profiles
(both created by the entire RRAS team).
The tool allows employees and managers a
means for answering the age old question
“How am I doing?” in a concrete consistent
format (same for all employees). We are
tracking our progress toward the completion
of the IDP tool with the IDP Grand Prix, a
fun and motivating race charted on a
window in the RRAS department. Feel free
to stop by and monitor our progress!
Thank you to those who contributed to this
newsletter. I was not able to print everything in
this edition but will include other items of
interest in our spring letter.