What's Inside

President's Letter	1
A Year of MDS Changes	2
Gulf States Health Services, Inc. Selects HCS	3
NEW!! Announcing HCS Clinical Navigator	3
Test Your Healthcare Knowledge - Play the HCS Trivia Game and Win a Prize!!	4
Contact HCS	4

President's Letter

Expansion and growth are the goals of any viable organization or business. With expansion comes the task of standardizing new companies into the fold of your established best practices and infrastructure. Information technology can be a vital tool in the transition of bringing these new acquisitions on-line.

Expansion often takes place within an existing vertical market or a new area which will broaden the scope and outreach of the organization's core mission. Your IT partner must not only posses the flexibility to adapt system functions and features to support new lines of business, but also ease the addition of new facilities into the system. The best way for an organization to measure a new facility's success is measuring it against existing organizational performance benchmarks. While the facility remains on the old system, measurement cannot be accessed accurately against the performance standards that your organization has established.

The majority of HCS clients have grown substantially since installing INTERACTANT. Our strength lies not only in assisting the transition of newly acquired locations, but in bringing them up-to-speed as quickly as possible. Multi-site management is one of the core strengths of our application through scalable database, application flexibility, and standardization.

HCS is proud of our heritage of more than 35 years of healthcare IT excellence, and look forward to many more in service to health information success.

With highest regards,
Joseph J. Fahey
Chief Executive Officer

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A Year of MDS Changes

This year has certainly been a busy one for the Minimum Data Set (MDS). Starting in the spring, the delayed RAI manual revisions, which ultimately became effective in June, caused a great deal of confusion for MDS users. The next major change included the October implementation of Section W, and more recently, the RUGS refinement changes that will be effective January 1, 2006.

Despite the fact that the RUGS changes take effect in 2006, facilities will require the new RUG53 version of the grouper by late November. This will allow the facility to make certain that assessments done very early in

the assessment window are grouped twice, ensuring the same assessment will bill at RUG44 throughout December, and bill at RUG53 on January 1, 2006.

Starting November 22, 2005, facilities will start to see both the RUG44 and RUG53 score on their validation reports when they transmit MDS assessments to their state.

The new nine RUG scores are for high-cost residents who qualify for both the rehabilitation and extensive service categories. This new rehabilitation/extensive group will be placed at the top of the

hierarchy, followed by rehabilitation, extensive services, and the existing RUG44 hierarchical placement. The new RUG53 scores will each have a corresponding Case Mix Index (CMI) for rural and urban facilities, and several of the CMIs for the current RUGS will change.

HCS is diligently working on these changes to promote a smooth transition for the first of the year. Please contact your HCS Representative for additional information regarding these essential changes.

Gulf States Health Services, Inc. Selects HCS

HCS is pleased to announce that Gulf States Health Services, Inc. (GSHS), a leading healthcare provider throughout the southern Gulf Coast region, selected INTERACTANT as its primary healthcare information system to support its long-term acute and rehabilitation hospitals throughout Louisiana.

GSHS will centralize its data and applications through the use of HCS's enterprise-wide, solution, INTERACTANT. This includes a built-in workflow management function that streamlines access to information. GSHS will be installing registration, billing, medical records, general ledger, accounts payable and executive information systems.

"We are a diverse company that provides a variety of healthcare services across multiple locations," states Cheryl Wallace, Chief Financial Officer of GSHS. "We were looking for an information system partner that would allow

"We were looking for an information system partner that would allow us to standardize financial operations..."

us to standardize financial operations across all of our facilities with one system. INTER - ACTANT's functionality and flexibility will provide a strong foundation for revenue cycle management, financial systems and reporting."

Thomas Fahey, HCS VP of Sales and Marketing, adds, "Specialty healthcare providers like GSHS offer greater efficiencies and cost savings when compared to the traditional acute care model. This is a healthcare arena that we are focused on supporting and expanding. GSHS sees the benefits of INTERACTANT's centralized information system approach which will give them a better grasp of their operations and allow them

to continue to focus on offering an increased level of care throughout its growing number of facilities. We look forward to a strong partnership with GSHS."

In business since 2001, GSHS is a leading provider of rehabilitation and long-term acute care. In late 2004, GSHS earned the Joint Commission Gold Seal of Approval™ by demonstrating compliance with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization's national standards for healthcare quality and safety. Visit the GSHS company website at www.gulfstateshs.com.

For additional information on this project or to learn more about HCS INTERACTANT, visit www.hcsinteractant.com or call (800) 524-1038.

New!!
Announcing HCS Clinical Navigator

HCS is proud to introduce a brand-new enhancement to the INTERACTANT Clinical System, the HCS Clinical Navigator. This new enhancement allows users to quickly and easily perform any clinical option from a centralized clinical information screen.

This new centralized screen details basic information about the account selected with the ability to inquire into specific account information including physician, emergency contact, allergy, and diagnosis.

A navigational menu bar is displayed across the top and lists

different charting areas the user can access for the account selected. A drop-down menu is then displayed with options for that charting area. Once an option is selected, the user will be directed to that area of the account's chart.

This easy-to-use navigational menu bar is displayed across the top of each clinical application's main screen. This provides users with a smooth transition to another area of the account's chart without having to return to the clinical information screen after each option is processed.

For additional information regarding this exciting new enhancement, please contact your Account Manager or an HCS Sales Representative today.

Test Your Healthcare Industry Knowledge Play the HCS Trivia Game and Win a Prize!!
Circle the correct answer below: The Medicare program was established in what year? 1955 1960 1965 Which group was offered Medicare eligibility in 1972? People with disabilities Those with end-stage renal disease Both of these groups According to the most recent Census Poll, the aged population in 2003 rose to: 20 million 30 million Over 35 million The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), found in Title 5 of the United States Code, section 552, was enacted in what year? 1966 1969 1972 How many Medicare claims for physician, hospital and other services are paid every year? 1 million 1 billion 1 trillion None of the above Who received the very first Medicare card? President Eisenhower President Roosevelt President Truman President Nixon In the Medicare program, what does DRG stand for? Diagnosis-Related Group Differential Regional Geography Disease Registry Graph Doctors and Relatives Group
Circle the correct answer, fax the completed game along with your name, title, facility name, mailing address, and phone number to 732-938-5380 and we will send you a prize! Answers will be posted on the www.hcsinteractant.com website.
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Health Care Software, Inc. P.O. Box 2430, Farmingdale, NJ 07727 Phone: 800-524-1038; Fax: 732-938-5380 Email: newsletters@hcsinteractant.com Visit us on the web at www.hcsinteractant.com

A Newsletter for the Healthcare Information Systems Community. Published by HCS.

Health Care Software, Inc.

Issue No. 21 - Fall 2005/Winter 2006