Home

Welcome to the Healthcare Business Specialists home page dedicated to Rural Health Clinics (RHCs). We have designed this site to provide the latest information on rural health clinics and information on Rural Health Clinic Update and RHC Boot Camp seminars. The seminars cover Medicare cost reporting, billing, annual evaluations, certification, and the operation of RHCs as certified by Medicare under Public Law 95-210. We hope that you find the website helpful to you and please let us know if there is something we can do to make the website more useful.

Healthcare Business Specialists is a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based consulting firm which specializes in rural health clinic reimbursement and prepares rural health clinic cost reports, annual evaluations, Quality Improvement plans, and RHC startups. Mark R. Lynn is trained as a certified public accountant and has over 23 years experience in the healthcare field with almost 15 years of experience devoted almost exclusively to rural health clinics. We have been conducting rural health clinic seminars for over 10 years and each year over 80% of our attendees have been to one of our seminars in the past.

June 12, 2009: Cahaba released its second transition newsletter today. It was emailed to everyone on the list-serve distribution list. It does clarify and makes it official that all RHCs serviced by Riverbend will start being processed by Cahaba effective August 3, 2009. If you would like a copy of the newsletter; sign up for our distribution list (just email us at la_vita_nouva@hotmail.com) as we will be emailing it to our clients in the near future. Here is the quote from Cahaba:

"Special Notice to Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) Services provided by Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) are processed under Medicare Part A. Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) are clinics that are located in areas designated by the Bureau of the Census as rural and by the Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) or the State as medically underserved. If you are a RHC provider currently serviced by Riverbend GBA you will be transitioned to Cahaba GBA effective August 3, 2009."

June 11, 2009: Cahaba has updated their website to include some responses to frequently asked questions. Although, it does make me a little nervous when they don't even know the official name is a rural health clinic. (they call them centers)

Here is a listing of phone numbers that will help you contact Cahaba personnel:

June 11, 2009 A Billing Transmittal dated April 24, 2009 may interest RHCs as it provides updates and clarifications to RHC/FQHC preventive billing instructions on Initial Preventive Physical Exam (IPPE), Abdominal Aortic Aneurism (AAA) screening, Diabetes Self Management Training (DSMT), Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT), and Vaccines.
Effective Date: October 1, 2009
Implementation Date: October 5, 2009

6/11/2009: Here is a nice document from CMS on the certification of RHCs that I found while researching for our upcoming seminars. Yes, with all the changes; I have been asked several times now to do some more seminars; so I will this summer. Trying to get all the details together right now. If you want on the email distribution list; please email me at la_vita_nouva@hotmail.com. Here is the link that I mentioned earlier:

6/09/2009: I'm on Twitter now and used it to take notes on the Cahaba conference call that was presented on June 9, 2009 at 11:00 Eastern. My notes (complete with lots of misspelled words) is included in the tweats as well as links to the websites listed in the handouts. For those of you transitioning to Cahaba on August 3rd this resource should be helpful. Here is the link:

As you can tell, its been a while since I have updated the website; so I wanted to update some items regarding RHCs. The biggest item to effect RHCs is the transition from Riverbend to Cahaba as the Medicare intermediary for most RHCs. Unfortunately, this will be a stop-gap measure for most RHCs as most will transition again to another Medicare intermediary in the future. The transition date is set for August 3, 2009 and Cahaba is requiring RHCs to submit a new 588-EFT form by July 17, 2009. Here are a couple of links to help you get through this process:

Cahaba Transition Website

Ok, not much time for the update; cost report season is in full swing here. If you need an RHC cost report completed by the May 31, 2009 deadline give me a call at 800.768.0278. We still have some availability; but not much. We currently are doing 40 cost reports by the 31st and have a max of 50.

MSP Form Medicare Secondary consent form

RHC Policy and Procedure Manual RHC Policy Procedure Template

Blank Annual Evaluation Form: Annual Evaluation Report Template