Chargemaster Maintenance Case Study

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HIM 6840 Case Studies in Health Information Management Name: Bayo Oshunlalu Case #: Case 2-6 Case Title: Chargemaster Maintenance What is a Chargemaster? The chargemaster or charge description master (CDM) is a basically a financial tool or an electronic system that housed detailed description/information about services charged to patients. The chargemaster can be a manual list or a file that is located in the organization’s account receivable billing system that contains hospital’s service items, and their charges. Furthermore, the chargemaster is a very crucial aspect of the reimbursement cycle and must contain vital information necessary to produce an itemized statement and claim form. Key components of the chargemaster include chargemaster …show more content…

Furthermore, uncertainty of new reimbursement models, diminishing reimbursement, and complicated compliance regulations are playing the role of a catalyst for streamlining the Chargemaster process in majority of healthcare organizations. A good example of these challenges was prompted by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid with the release of data and chargemasters from several healthcare facilities. The release of the chargemasters sends a wave shock across the healthcare industry as it depicts a huge price discrepancies among health care providers, and due to this exposure many healthcare organizations attempt to rectify their charges. The main purpose the CMS release the chargemasters was to encourage transparency in hospital’s billing …show more content…

The hospital’s departments lack involvement in the chargemaster process. Lack of effective communication channel to handle issues with chargemaster. Non-existence educational program about the importance of chargemaster maintenance. Inadequate workflow model to ensure ease of chargemaster maintenance. Propose Process Improvement for Chargemaster. The first step to enforcing an appropriate chargemaster and to avoid all ramification associated with the status quo is to establish a position for chargemaster coordinator, and to create a chargemaster master department to facilitate the effective handing of our organization chargemaster. In addition to establishing chargemaster position and department, a chargemaster committee should be created that consist of all major departmental leadership. The duties of the chargemaster committee will involve developing a standardized form for handling charge related issues, and establishing a communication platform that will enable all departments to collaborate on chargemaster related issues. Furthermore, the chargemaster committee will also be responsible for creating a policies and procedures manual that will be used to reference information about the issue concerning

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