In this episode, Christina Brown, BESLER’s Vice President of Reimbursement Services provides us with a glimpse into BESLER’s next The Hospital Finance Academy Webinar, Cost Report Essentials: A Detailed Exploration of the Fundamentals, Part 2, hosted live on Wednesday, September 17th, at 1 PM ET.
Podcast (hfppodcast): Play in new window | Download
Learn how to listen to The Hospital Finance Podcast® on your mobile device.Highlights of this episode include:
- How this webinar will differ from the Part 1 webinar
- What will be covered
- Form sets update
- The downstream impact
- Specifics on how to process a cost report
Kelly Wisness: Hi, this is Kelly Wisness. Welcome back to the award-winning Hospital Finance Podcast. We’re pleased to welcome back Christina Brown, BESLER’s Vice President of Reimbursement Services. In this episode, Christina will provide us with a glimpse into BESLER’s next The Hospital Finance Academy Webinar, Cost Report Essentials: A Detailed Exploration of the Fundamentals, Part 2, that we’re hosting live on Wednesday, September 17th, at 1 PM Eastern Time. Welcome back, and thank you for joining us, Christina.
Christina Brown: Thanks so much, Kelly. It’s always a pleasure to join you.
Kelly: It’s always great to have you here. Well, let’s go ahead and jump in. So, this Academy session is labeled as Part 2. Can you tell us how this will differ from your Part 1 webinar?
Christina: Yeah. That’s actually a great question. So, in Part 1, the content was a bit more basic in the sense that we really focused on really what a cost report is and what makes it important. We also touched on the filing requirements and the various types of cost reports. However, in this session, I’m going to be diving a bit deeper into some of the mechanics of the cost report.
Kelly: Awesome. Well, I enjoyed Part 1. I know Part 2 is going to be great, too. So, would you mind elaborating a bit on what exactly you’ll be covering in this Part 2 iteration? I know you kind of talked about it already, but can you dive in a little bit more for us?
Christina: Sure, yes. I’d be happy to do that. So just as a reset, I’m just going to recap a little bit of Part 1 just so that we can kind of start with a fresh basis. And then I’ll be covering some of the other form sets and talking about their similarities and their differences. Then I’m going to be diving into really what is an allowable cost as it relates to the cost report. Next, I’ll talk about the downstream impact and kind of what that means. And then I’ll conclude with just what are some impactful items on the cost report. These would be things that are settlement related versus things that maybe are not settlement related.
Kelly: Well, I know there’s a lot to discuss when it comes to the cost report, so I know there’s going to be plenty of good new information here. There’s a great deal of time spent on the Hospital Cost Report, we know that. Can you explain a little bit more about the other form sets?
Christina: So sure, absolutely. So, I discussed what those form sets were in Part 1, but I’ll discuss them in a little more detail in this Part 2 iteration. So, the Hospital Cost Report is one we focus on the most because it is definitely the one that has the most involved and deals with the most reimbursement dollars. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other form sets for other provider types. So, these would be for standalone skilled nursing facilities, rural health clinics, hospice and home health agencies as well as some renal dialysis facilities. So, all cost report filings are important because, well, they are a regulatory requirement and must be filed in order to receive payments from Medicare. So, while the Hospital Cost Report is the most involved, other form sets typically operate similarly to the 2552-10 Hospital Cost Report. But as I mentioned, they are just less involved. And really, you would notice if you looked at those other form sets that, in some cases, these other form sets may appear to mirror certain sections or series of forms within the 2552-10 cost report.
Kelly: Wow. It sounds like you’re going to cover quite a bit there. So, would you discuss what you meant when you said downstream impact? What types of things will you discuss as part of the downstream impact?
Christina: That’s another really great question. So, as we know, the Hospital Cost Report is impactful when it comes to reimbursement. And if you tuned into Part 1 of this, I discussed many of the worksheets within the cost report are dependent on other areas within the cost report. And that’s really what we mean by downstream impact is just how other sections of the cost report impact other sections. So, I’m going to elaborate a little bit on what forms a reimbursement professional should be cognizant of when processing the cost report and how some specific worksheets impact other worksheets within the cost report.
Kelly: Okay. That sounds great. So will you be going into specifics on how to process a cost report during your session?
Christina: So, this is only an hour long–
Kelly: [laughter] All right.
Christina: So… I won’t really be able to explore much about how to process a cost report because that’s quite involved. So, we’re just really going to be exploring all the– continuing on some of the key fundamentals in this section. So, if that is something you’re interested in, I would invite you to stay tuned as I do have another session coming up this year where I’ll be taking a deep dive into processing the cost report.
Kelly: Awesome, always lots of great content from your team. So, you’ve mentioned how impactful the cost report is. Can you give us a preview regarding what will be covered when you discuss the impactful items on the cost report?
Christina: Certainly. So, this is more of an overview of some of the heavier hitting items that will be discussed in greater detail, probably in other webinars or other sessions. So those would be things like uncompensated care, interns and residents as well as other settlement and big-ticket items. So again, I would invite you to stay tuned for those if those specific items are of particular interest. In this session, in particular, I’ll discuss what worksheets impact the cost report settlement and which ones do not as well as what the term settlement means. Because like I said, this is just a back-to-basics kind of session.
Kelly: It sounds like you’re going to be covering quite a bit, and we’re going to be learning a lot. So, thank you so much for joining us, Christina, and for sharing this sneak peek into BESLER’s upcoming Academy Webinar, Cost Report Essentials: A Detailed Exploration of the Fundamentals, Part 2, that you’re presenting live on Wednesday, September 17, at 1 PM Eastern Time. And as a bonus, you can earn one CPE. Thanks again, Christina.
Christina: Thanks so much, Kelly.
Kelly: And thank you all for joining us for this episode of the Hospital Finance Podcast. Until next time…
[music] This concludes today’s episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. For show notes and additional resources to help you protect and enhance revenue at your hospital, visit besler.com/podcasts. The Hospital Finance Podcast is a production of BESLER | SMART ABOUT REVENUE, TENACIOUS ABOUT RESULTS.
If you have a topic that you’d like us to discuss on the Hospital Finance podcast or if you’d like to be a guest, drop us a line at update@besler.com.
