Donna Lee Gardner
• What information can I share with the employer for health screenings? HIPAA is very specific regarding personal health information. You need to have the client company’s employees sign consent for the release of any PHI to the employer, from blood pressure results, lab results, and general screening like vision, weight, and BMI. Aggregated data of the employer screening identifying the total number of employees screened and the high risks identified like a number of elevated blood pressures or glucose abnormal numbers are appropriate as long as no reference to a specific employee is made.
• Who is allowed to receive UDS results at the client company? When contracting with a client company for drug screen testing, it is required the company representative be identified by name and contact information, as well as the process outlined for the reporting of results. Additionally, it must be documented that in the absence of the company contact what other company representative has the authority to receive testing results?
• What authorization do I need to get from the patient to share injury data with the company? Workers’ compensation injury data is shared with the company following the regulatory issues of the state workers’ compensation law and OSHA to provide the employer with the necessary information to process the claim. Past medical, surgical, and other historical medical information is not shared UNLESS that information is pertinent to the processing of the injury/illness and, therefore, the claim.
• Who is responsible for making sure the insurance company has all the information for the claim resulting? It is the responsibility of the employer to provide the insurance company with the necessary employee information. It is the responsibility of the provider to complete the First Report of Injury information and provide it to the insurance company. Specific state mandates via the workers’ compensation law govern how much info is to be shared by the provider.
• Does HIPAA apply to workplace wellness programs? Workplace wellness programs that are sponsored by the employer require that the employee sign consent to release aggregated data to the employer. Those programs provided by the employer’s insurance company fall under HIPAA and therefore no PHI can be shared without written consent.
• What does the employer have to do to comply with securing health information? Employers are mandated to have confidential processes for attaining and storing employee health information.
• What responsibility does the physician/provider has regarding informed consent? Physicians should recognize a patient’s consent-for-disclosure only if said consent is both informed and voluntary.
Electronic Medical Records
Dr. Michael Rothwell
• What are the OSHA requirements for occupational medical records? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) defines an “occupational medical record” as an occupation-related, chronological, cumulative record, regardless of the form or process by which it is maintained (i.e., paper document, microfiche, microfilm, or automatic data processing media). The occupational medical record includes information about health status documented on an employee, including personal and occupational health histories as well as the opinions and written evaluations generated in the course of diagnosis, employment-related treatment, and examination by healthcare professionals and technicians. The definition includes employee exposure records, occupational illness, and accident or injury records.
• Our health system has EPIC. How do I get it to approve OHS software? EPIC is not able to maintain the confidentiality of the substance abuse screenings, so by this point alone, they are not compliant with the HIPAA guidelines for this testing. Lab results can be accessed by all in the system. It’s not appropriate for occupational medical record confidentiality.
• What software provides the best outcomes? Depends on what outcomes you are looking to capture. Treatment guidelines, financial guidelines, and customer service guidelines all have software that specifically addresses those outcomes.
• How do I know what medical guidelines I should purchase? Review the guidelines that are approved by ACOEM.
• How can we develop training to providers that works? Orientation and training for the medical record process is a time-consuming, educational presentation. You have to clearly define your standards, then you can train the documentation to meet the standards using the software chosen. Without the standards and templates in the software, you have no model to share for compliance to standardize.
• How to develop competency monitoring for staff using the software? Develop standards for the documentation process and define each element to meet the standard, then identify the monitor to ensure the staff follows the standard and documents all the elements identified.
Maximizing a Sales Professional’s Time
Justin Caldwell
• What monitors are best to determine sales staff productivity? The program goals initially establish the benchmarks for the sales efforts. A number of new clients, volumes, revenue increases, upselling, and cross-selling are used to set the productivity levels for the sales staff.
• What sales software is best? Several occupational health software have sales components. Review what you have and then look at what monitors you are measuring before you purchase any software. Many hospital systems have sales software. If you are part of a health system, you may not need to purchase. It might be part of your IT menu.
• What reports are essential in the sales process? Current clients and their profiles to determine potential upselling, number of new clients per quarter, potential market changes that identify new businesses in the future, new product needs, issues with the processes for service delivery, and staffing needs and training as new regulatory issues are identified are essential.
• What are the primary time wasters in sales? Cold calls, lack of current company information for contacts, extensive report writing, and lack of information on the products offered so sales are not appropriate to the program services.
• How do we determine what clients to visit for our new salesperson? Pick a current, loyal client to introduce the new salesperson to – no sales visit, just a get-to-know visit. It’s an excellent opportunity to view the client and sales interaction for training. After, reviewing the meeting, then choose a potential client with a specific product focus. DOT is a great example, so the sale is focused on specific services. Expand exposure to additional potential clients with multiple service needs.
• What type of orientation is best to provide the salesperson? Defining the products in your program is essential to the success of the salesperson. Once they understand what they are selling, you can then discuss sales processes.
• Our salesperson is part of the hospital. How do I monitor what they are doing? Weekly meetings define who they met with and what was discussed.
Justifying Occupational Health to Senior Management
Justin Caldwell
• How do I determine what my senior management expects from my program? Clearly defined goals and objectives are essential to determining administrative expectations. Meeting to identify the program success benchmarks provides the dashboard for your reporting and success monitors.
• What makes the MOST impact on senior management? Revenue!
• How and when is the best time to address staffing increases? Clearly defined productivity monitors are the best monitors for staffing needs. Identifying the process initially and the benchmarks for adding staff provides the structure for staffing. Each staff role in the staffing mix needs to be identified and considered in the staff plan from providers to office staff, to sales staff and outside resources. Productivity for staffing monitors should be reviewed quarterly to ensure consistent compliance to standards and not just a sudden need for staff due to one unscheduled event.
• We have a silo mentality throughout the health system. How can I cross the lines without causing major havoc? It is important to identify the impact that silos have on the provision of health care to your community. How departments can work together is an essential component of success and requires clearly defines processes and guidelines for all to break down the silo walls and work together. Some “havoc’ is necessary to get the ball rolling for team development.
• What reports are considered essential for OHS to provide to senior management? Revenue reports provide the gas for the program. Expenses define the cost of providing services, and the volumes of services identify what you are doing.
• We have multiple UC. How do I get the blended model approved? Not every market can support a blended model. You need to evaluate and research what are the market needs near every UC. Populations drive health needs. Once you know who is serviced by the UC, you can determine if a blended model will work and what blended services would be most appropriate.
