Universal Service: What it means for Rural Hospitals

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Universal ServiceWhat it means for Rural
Hospitals

• Jason C. Wulf
• Financial Analyst

Thursday, May 15, 2003, 345 to 500
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About Avera Health

• Sponsored by the Presentation and Benedictine
  Sisters
• Located in 5 States, SD, ND, MN, IA, NE
• Hospitals in 26 communities
• Clinics in 59 communities
• Long-term care in 17 communities
• Home Medical Equipment businesses in 20
  communities

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Experience with RHC

• Rocky start
• Streamlined and more user friendly after Funding
  Year 3
• Online forms have greatly enhanced the process
• Help desk does exceptional job
• RHC willing to listen and make changes when
  necessary

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Experience with RHC

• Rural telecommunication companies sometimes not
  familiar with RHC process or forms
• Big telecommunication companies shift paperwork
  responsibility around and things get lost in the
  shuffle

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Benefits Rural Community

• Telehealth
• Educational sessions
• Freedom from smoking
• Diabetes club
• Expanded services
• Specialists
• Reduced travel for rural citizens

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Benefits Rural Hospital

• Expanded services and capabilities
• Telehealth
• Education
• Grand rounds, HIPAA Sessions, Mandatory
  In-services
• Telemedicine
• Mental health, dermatology, pulmonology, internal
  medicine, fetal ultrasounds, infectious disease
• Teleradiology
• Clinical and financial data systems
• Internet
• E-mail

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Benefits Rural Hospital

• The RHCD reimbursement makes the T1 line a
  little easier to afford for rural facilities. 
  This in turn means when we were making decisions
  for the connections via email, information
  system, teleradiology, teleconferencing
  equipment, etc. to our regional hospital, it
  makes it more affordable.  We get about 600 a
  month reimbursement from RHCD for our T1 line
  which means 7,200 annually which is quite a
  large amount for a small facility.
• Kayleen Lee Administrator and Linda Jager
  Business Office Manager, Avera Weskota Hospital,
  Wessington Springs, SD

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Benefits Health System

• Provide education and services to small hospitals
  
• HIPAA sessions, Medicare A Newsline Review,
  unified information systems platforms
• Enhanced communication
• Videoconferencing when Telehealth is not in use
• Administrative meetings
• Negotiate better pricing on information
  technology projects due to large Wide-Area
  Network and interconnected systems

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Benefits Health System

• Significant savings
• Year 1 - 128,819
• Year 2 - 64,327
• Year 3 - 244,534
• Year 4 - 279,639 estimated
• Year 5 - 395,081 projected
• Total - 1,112,400 Directly back to the
  hospitals
• Roughly 55 - 60 savings off gross charges/year
• Covers 44 locations and 55 circuits across Avera
  Health

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• RHCD help line 1-800-229-5476
• www.rhc.universalservice.org
• Jason Wulf Avera Health
• 605-322-4722