Posted on November 25, 2024

Enhancing CC and MCC Code Capture: Three Real-World Scenarios for Maximizing Reimbursement Revenue

Accurate documentation and coding are crucial for patient care and financial sustainability in the ever-evolving healthcare landscape. For conditions like heart failure, precise capture of complications and comorbidities (CC) and major complications and comorbidities (MCC) play a significant role in payer reimbursement.

In recent years, changes in inpatient coding, including ICD-10 and Diagnosis Related Grouper (DRG), have had an increasing impact on hospitals’ bottom lines. Reimbursement payments for patient care with complications or comorbidities are substantially higher. For example, reimbursement for heart failure and shock with MCC is approximately twice that for heart failure and shock without CC or MCC.1 Physician documentation plays a key role in ensuring accurate diagnosis coding, which in turn is crucial for billing, reimbursement, and quality reporting across all healthcare providers.2

With heartbase’s hbRecon, a multitude of cases were uncovered in which the patient’s acute heart failure coding was incorrect, identifying thousands of dollars in services per case that would have otherwise gone unbilled.

Enhancing Heart Failure Detail Capture for Optimal Revenue Generation

Clinical registry data represents one of the most detailed and accurate hospital procedures or event records. Due to this dataset’s extreme granularity and complexity, it is challenging for coders to analyze and consume this information accurately without a process to audit the record and receive assistance from the clinical team.

hbRecon Client Success Stories

Discrepancies in coding led to incorrect classifications and subsequent billing errors for the three example patients below. hbRecon leveraged standard (STS Adult Cardiac Registry and ACC-NCDR CathPCI) and custom clinical registry data elements to collect and capture Acute and Acute on Chronic HF conditions and, after detailed reviews and corrections by the registry & coding teams, the accounts were properly classified, resulting in significant differences in reimbursement for each patient.

The importance of improved reimbursement through accurate coding cannot be overstated. Here are three examples of a coordinated audit uncovering incomplete coding and associated potential revenue loss. hbRecon plays a crucial role in identifying potential billing errors by isolating commonalities between clinical registry and coding data –  automatically flagging potential mismatches and fostering cross-departmental communication. 

Three Examples of Improved Reimbursement with Complete Capture and Coding 

Patient #1

In the STS Adult Cardiac Registry dataset, a patient undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) with mitral valve replacement was documented as having Acute on Chronic HF, which should have grouped the account to MS DRG 219. However, the coding data did not include any specified HF code. After a detailed review by the registry site manager, they flagged the documentation in a physician consult note stating “acute on chronic congestive heart failure.” The coding was then updated to properly classify the account, resulting in a positive reimbursement difference of $19,471.00 at that facility.

Patient #2

Within the ACC-NCDR CathPCI Registry dataset, a patient was clinically abstracted as having CV Instability Type – Acute HF Symptoms, which would likely group the account to MS DRG 246. However, the coding data indicated HF as chronic only. A query was opened, which confirmed the patient’s condition as “acute on chronic systolic + diastolic CHF,” a discrepancy from the discharge summary. The coding team promptly rectified the error, regrouping the account from MS DRG 247 to MS DRG 246. This correction resulted in a significant difference in reimbursement, amounting to $7,058.00 at that facility.

Patient #3

Within the STS Adult Cardiac Registry dataset, a patient was marked as having acute HF for CABG (without cardiac catheterization or open ablation), which should group the account to MS DRG 235. However, the coding data does not specify any HF. Upon further review by the registry site manager, they located the specific documentation on a physician-scanned document wherein “acute HF” is documented. After reviewing this documentation that was placed into the EMR post-discharge, coding made the necessary changes to regroup the account from MS DRG 236 to MS DRG 235. As a result, there was a difference in reimbursement of $24,776.65 at that facility.

Each of these claims uncovered by hbRecon underscores the pivotal role of accurate coding for cardiac services and the difficulties in fully capturing the services provided during each episode of care. hbRecon, with its ability to provide a more detailed audit based on clinical registry data, can significantly reduce under- and over-billing, accurately reflect patient acuity and case mix index (CMI), and ensure all available reimbursements are collected. By steadily improving coding quality and fostering interdepartmental collaboration, hbRecon empowers health systems to optimize revenue capture for their cardiac services.

Complete Capture and Coding with hbRecon

Accurate capture of CC and MCC in patients with Acute or Acute on Chronic Heart Failure is not just a matter of compliance but a critical component of effective healthcare delivery. By focusing on thorough documentation and continuous education, healthcare systems can optimize revenue, improve patient outcomes, and contribute to the overall quality of care. As the healthcare landscape continues to change, staying informed and adaptable will be key to success in managing these complex patient populations.

Want to learn more? Schedule a demo to discover how hbRecon can improve the profitability of cardiac services in your health system.

Sources:

1. Gluckman, T. (2020). Trends in Diagnosis Related Groups for Inpatient Admissions and Associated Changes in Payment From 2012 to 2016. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.28470 

2. CDIP, MCC, CC, HCC: The Road to Better Revenue. AAPC. https://www.aapc.com/blog/25741-cdip-mcc-cc-hcc-the-road-to-better-revenue/ 

Posted on October 10, 2024

Heartbase Certified in ACC-NCDR AFib Ablation v2.0

CHICAGO, IL—As of September 30th, 2024, we are excited to announce that heartbase™ is officially certified by the ACC-NCDR for Version 2.0 of the AFib Ablation Registry Database. This registry begins with October 2024 discharges, and for the first time offers the ability to track follow-up visits. Heartbase Users, please contact Support@heartbase.net to schedule your upgrade today!

From the ACC-NCDR website:

“The AFib Ablation Registry™ assesses the prevalence, demographics, acute management and outcomes of patients undergoing atrial fibrillation (AFib) catheter ablation procedures. Its data supports the development of evidence-based guidelines for AFib treatments that will improve patient outcomes.”

Participation offers:

  • Integration & Interoperability with other heartbase hbCOR registry events.
  • Interoperability options from other hospital systems, such as Epic Clarity, to allow for the pre-population of discrete fields.
  • A comprehensively streamlined & customizable electronic DCF, improving upon the flow and functionality of the ACC Online Tool, with options such as role-based access.
  • Simplified reporting with the hbQuery Tool, with standard reports to follow.
  • Pending integration with the hbRecon Module to ensure AFib Ablation cases are correctly coded and billed, maximizing reimbursement.

About heartbase, Inc.

Since 1992, heartbase™ has provided health care centers with the most technologically innovative and clinically intuitive data management and analytic solution in the industry. Working collegially with its immense network of users, heartbase™ has created a vast library of reporting tools that provides its clients with complete control of their hospital-owned clinical data. Heartbase’s revolutionary hbCOR platform propels clinical performance, aligns clinical data with registry requirements, and unites health care systems from across our network to the most comprehensive reporting repository in the industry.

Posted on August 1, 2024

Real User Insights: Evaluating the Impact of hbRecon at Three Hospitals

Discrepancies between coding data and clinical registry data can significantly impact reimbursements in a cardiac services department — yet many health systems are unable to recognize these missed revenue opportunities without a comprehensive coding audit.

The hbRecon solution was selected by the following three hospitals to help identify and resolve these discrepancies in their cardiac services billing departments. Here, we share their experiences and explore how hbRecon’s clinical registry data-based audits helped build a more profitable and efficient cardiac services department in each organization.

Evaluating the hbRecon Impact: Explore Three User Experiences

1. How does your hospital use clinical registry data?

  • Jerod Weimer, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital: We use the registries to measure, monitor, and improve our patient care and outcomes.
  • Kerry Webb, Chandler Regional Medical Center and Mercy Gilbert Medical Center: We use our data for measuring performance, quality goals and performance improvement.
  • Beth Kennalley: To measure and monitor clinical performance, quality goal performance, and performance improvement activities.

2. What do you find most valuable about collecting registry data?

  • Jerod Weimer, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital: The ability to keep our “finger on the pulse” of the systems involved in our patient care and program performance.
  • Kerry Webb, Chandler Regional Medical Center and Mercy Gilbert Medical Center: The data helps to identify any processes that may need to be improved and usually end up uncovering other things that can use improvement.
  • Beth Kennalley: Identifying performance opportunities and excellence.

3. How has hbRecon fit into your current processes and workflows?

  • Jerod Weimer, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital: hbRecon has allowed us to expand the awareness and performance of our documentation and interdepartmental working relationship by closely tying the clinical data to the administrative data.
  • Kerry Webb, Chandler Regional Medical Center and Mercy Gilbert Medical Center: It fits in looking at and reviewing the data when I have a chance. Sometimes, it is right after it is uploaded, and other times, it takes a week or two.
  • Beth Kennalley: hbRecon is a monthly review of any abstraction and coding differences on both our Open Heart and CathPCI cases, and has taken less and less time as we have improved performance in both areas. It allows me to quickly and accurately review both data sets to ensure they accurately reflect the case that was performed.

4. What do you find most valuable about using hbRecon?

  • Jerod Weimer, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital: hbRecon’s most valuable impact has come from increased accuracy in both clinical and administrative documentation.
  • Kerry Webb, Chandler Regional Medical Center and Mercy Gilbert Medical Center: hbRecon has helped identify documentation issues on the physician’s end. It has also helped our coding team to improve their system when it or the people are combing through the charts.
  • Beth Kennalley: The ability to compare two independent chart abstractions is invaluable but would take too much time to do manually to be useful. This tool allows us to do this and find multiple errors in a short amount of time, and to submit this information for correction in a timely manner. The tool has allowed us to be reassured that our billing is accurate in these areas.

Realize These Financial and Operational Benefits in Your Organization

Each of these hospitals’ experiences highlights the critical importance of accurate coding for cardiac services, as well as the challenges of comprehensively capturing the services provided during each episode of care. The hbRecon toolkit equips health systems with a more granular audit based on clinical registry data to reduce under and over-billing, accurately reflect patient acuity and case mix index (CMI), and drive proper reimbursements. Through step-by-step improvements in coding quality, with a core focus on enhancing interdepartmental collaboration, hbRecon is helping health systems maximize accurate revenue capture for their cardiac services.

Want to learn more? Schedule a demo to discover how hbRecon can improve cardiac services profitability in your health system.

Posted on June 10, 2024

The Case for hbRecon: Comparing Clinical Registry Data and Claims-Based Auditing Tools

Learn how integrating claims-based audits with clinical registry data-based audits like hbRecon provides more actionable insights to optimize financial and clinical performance.

Conducting coding audits is crucial for healthcare organizations in maintaining accurate billing, compliance with regulations, revenue integrity, and quality improvement. In turn, audits provide insight into optimizing coding practices, ensuring the delivery of the highest-quality care, and identifying missed opportunities for appropriate reimbursement. When performed more granularly, audits allow for optimizing the coding processes, accurately capturing all eligible services and procedures while minimizing financial and legal risks.

Historically, claims-based audits have been the standard practice; however, registry data-based audits provide an alternative, nuanced insight into each episode of care and associated event. While claims-based solutions utilize billing data to investigate the revenue cycle journey, hbRecon uses clinical registry data, which provides unique insights into uncovering coding errors that lead to missed revenue opportunities.

The Difference Between Clinical Registry Data and Claims Data

So, how do clinical registry data and claims data differ? Clinical registry data and claims data are valuable information sources in the healthcare industry, but they serve different purposes and have distinct characteristics.

Clinical registry data from sources such as the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO), the American Heart Association (AHA), and State Organizations (COAP & CCORP), includes discrete data elements that contain detailed clinical information about patients, diagnoses, procedures, and outcomes. It is particularly useful in auditing the clinical processes and outcomes of specific medical procedures or conditions.

On the other hand, claims data refers to information collected from insurance claims submitted by healthcare providers for reimbursement purposes. This coded data source includes details about the services provided, such as procedures performed, diagnoses, medications prescribed, and associated costs. However, information for each claim is limited, and it doesn’t capture all aspects of a person’s treatment or health – many things must be inferred.1

Expanding Your Toolkit for Effective Auditing

Both clinical registry data and claims data are instrumental in medical data auditing. Claims data is typically used for financial audits and to assess the appropriateness and accuracy of billing and reimbursement practices, aiming to ensure coding accuracy, compliance with payer requirements and regulatory standards, and integrity of the submitted claims data. On the other hand, clinical registry data provides deeper clinical insight to determine if the claims’ codes appropriately represent the services provided and diagnoses assigned, revealing any missed opportunities for revenue capture due to miscoding. This increased specificity allows auditors to assess adherence to clinical guidelines, identify variations in care, and evaluate patient outcomes.

When segregated, the audits’ data sets lose efficacy. For example, a claims-based audit may determine the claim’s coding to be accurate, but this audit alone cannot determine if additional, necessary coding was omitted due to insufficient provider documentation or missteps in translating clinical language into coding language, especially around MCC and CC conditions. However, clinical registry data-based audits, analogous to the hbRecon-based audit, can reveal potentially missed diagnoses and/or treatment codes, reducing the risk of undercoding or missing revenue opportunities.

The integration of both audit types provides a more comprehensive and accurate assessment of healthcare quality, outcomes, and financial performance. With this synergistic approach to healthcare delivery, it’s possible to ensure that both clinical and financial aspects are aligned and optimized. This is where hbRecon’s use of clinical registry data in conjunction with claims data in the audit process demonstrates its distinctive superiority when uncovering errors in revenue capture.

Harness the Power of Clinical Registry Data With hbRecon

When it comes to revenue capture, the following factors demonstrate why clinical registry data offers superior results:

  1. Clinical Specificity and Coding Accuracy. hbRecon analyzes clinical registry data with detailed discrete & structured clinical information about a patient encounter, including diagnoses, procedures, treatments, and outcomes. This level of specificity allows for an accurate and comprehensive comparison of the services provided and the services billed, leading to improved revenue capture.
  2. Comprehensive Data. Clinical registry data often includes information beyond what is captured in claims data. It may include additional clinical measures, patient-reported outcomes, and quality indicators that provide a more comprehensive view of the patient’s condition and treatment. One clinical registry module alone can warehouse over 2,000 data elements in a single visit. With the hbRecon toolkit, this additional information can support accurate documentation and coding, leading to improved revenue capture.
  3. Quality Improvement. Clinical registry data is often used for quality improvement initiatives, clinical research, and benchmarking. These activities focus on optimizing patient outcomes and care processes, which can indirectly impact revenue capture by enhancing the quality and efficiency of care delivery. hbRecon allows users to review all relevant clinical registry, financial, and coding data in one location.
  4. Patient Acuity. This is where hbRecon’s use of clinical registry data shines again, capturing a better picture of the patient’s acuity – because if the coding is wrong, patients may appear healthier or sicker – lending to a more accurate CMI. From there, hbRecon translates that into the associated diagnosis-related group (DRG) code, adding a CC or MCC when applicable. This benefits the cardiovascular population by better reflecting their actual patient acuity, CMI, and severity of illness, which makes way for appropriate quality improvement initiatives and medically indicated clinical research, ultimately enhancing patient outcomes and care processes.
    Beth Kennalley, a quality professional with one of hbRecon’s major hospital clients, shared what she found most valuable about implementing hbRecon in terms of efficient and accurate billing: “The ability to be able to compare two independent chart abstractions is invaluable but would take too much time to do manually to be useful. This tool allows us to do this, find multiple errors quickly, and promptly submit this information for correction. The tool has reassured us that our billing is accurate in these areas.”

Beth shared that hbRecon’s monthly review of abstraction and coding differences has taken less and less time, and her organization has improved performance in both areas. Efficiency is critical to her ability to quickly and accurately review both data sets to ensure they accurately reflect the case performed.

hbRecon: Translating Clinical Data for Coding Specificity

hbRecon’s phased approach for clinical registry data auditing is a valuable tool for increasing revenue capture with its unique clinical registry and coding data dataset, providing detailed and specific clinical information about patient encounters, allowing for accurate and complete coding based on the documentation of services provided.

Is your healthcare organization ready to discover alternate revenue streams through the hbRecon toolkit? Our platform can integrate clinical registry and coding data sources to algorithmically analyze and determine recommended billing codes and identify probable coding mismatches and rebilling opportunities.

Schedule a discovery call today: https://www.heartbase.net/social-discovery-call

Sources

MIT OpenCourseWare (Dec 13, 2018) 4.3.3 Healthcare Costs – Video 2: Claims Data https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYrDTn37m-I

Posted on May 8, 2024

Navigating Medicare Coding Changes to Maximize IVL Revenue Capture

Learn how hbRecon helped one IDN recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue for IVL procedures by performing a coordinated data audit.

Intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) is a novel procedure used to aid in the treatment of severely calcified coronary artery disease. As IVL procedures have grown in utilization since FDA approval in 2021, hospital coding departments often struggle to document the correct utilization for each patient, especially as Medicare continues to shift its coding guidelines to ensure proper reimbursement.1 Utilizing heartbase’s hbRecon Toolkit, one integrated delivery network (IDN) seamlessly navigated the recent Medicare IVL coding changes, identifying over $300,000 in services that would have otherwise gone unbilled.

Implementing new coding guidelines is a critical challenge for cardiac services billing departments. Whether a coder is unaware of the specific changes or fails to recognize how these changes apply, the end result is a missed code and limited reimbursement. A 2023 report from Shockwave Medical, the pioneer in IVL technology for coronary procedures, describes the most recent Medicare coding guideline changes for IVL:1

Turning Missed IVL Codes Into Six-Figure Revenue

“Starting October 1, 2023, three new Coronary IVL-specific Medicare Severity Diagnosis Related Group (MS-DRG) codes have been established for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) procedures involving Coronary IVL in the hospital inpatient setting. The New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) for Coronary IVL will conclude on September 30, 2023.

Additionally, the final 2024 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule consolidates the prior four MS-DRGs involving PCI with implant of a stent into two MS-DRGs, removing a previous distinction between stent type – Drug Eluting Stent (DES) or Bare Metal Stent (BMS). PCI with stent procedures utilizing alternative plaque modification therapies such as atherectomy, cutting or scoring balloons without the adjunctive use of IVL will map to PCI MS-DRGs 321-322.”

Shockwave Medical. (2021, February 16). Shockwave Intravascular Lithotripsy FDA Approved to Treat Advanced Heart Disease [Press release]. https://shockwavemedical.com/about/press-releases/shockwave-intravascular-lithotripsy-fda-approved-to-treat-advanced-heart-disease/

Despite significant changes to reimbursement structures, countless coding departments continue to operate on previous guidelines. As a result, this IDN missed IVL reimbursements from over two dozen procedures by failing to use the new ICD10-PCS codes. Leveraging the hbRecon toolkit, the IDN performed a coordinated audit to locate these discrepancies and identify where the IVL was miscoded in each claim. From October 2023 to February 2024, hbRecon identified 27 cases across nine sites with missed IVL codes, recovering hundreds of thousands of dollars in unbilled revenue.

Maximize Accurate CV Services Revenue With hbRecon

The struggle to properly capture and code IVL charges is just one example of the widespread challenge facing cardiac service coding teams in nearly every major hospital and health system across the country. To help close the gaps in coding and documentation coverage, hbRecon uses advanced software-driven tools to algorithmically analyze coding, clinical registry, and financial data, identifying mismatches and recommending proper Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) codes. hbRecon helps billing teams determine how to correct their coding and registry data, optimizing their processes to accurately reflect each episode of care and, ultimately, build a more profitable cardiac services department.

Reach out to learn more about how hbRecon can help your facility eliminate coding gaps and maximize reimbursements for cardiac services.

Sources

  1. Shockwave Medical. (2021, February 16). Shockwave Intravascular Lithotripsy FDA Approved to Treat Advanced Heart Disease [Press release]. https://shockwavemedical.com/about/press-releases/shockwave-intravascular-lithotripsy-fda-approved-to-treat-advanced-heart-disease/
  2. Coronary Intravascular Lithotripsy (IVL) & Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI): 2024 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Reimbursement Coding and Payment Guide. (2023). Shockwave Medical. https://discover.shockwavemedical.com/hubfs/shockwave-medical/Coronary%20IVL%20Hospital%20Inpatient%20Coding%20Guide.pdf 
Posted on April 10, 2024

Heartbase, Inc. Officially Supports the STS Adult Cardiac Beta Blocker & General Thoracic Neo-Adjuvant Supplemental Forms

CHICAGO, IL – We are excited to announce that heartbase™ officially supports the STS Adult Cardiac Beta Blocker Supplemental Form for v4.20.2 and General Thoracic Neo-Adjuvant Supplemental Form for v5.21.1. On April 30th, heartbase clinical specialist Carmen Ernst, RN, BSN, will hold a special training class covering the ins and outs of these optional updates. Heartbase customers can click here to register.

From the STS:
“Advances in medicine, technology and research interests has generated the need for The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) to collect additional data from sites related to the already existing registries: Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD), General Thoracic Surgery Database (GTSD), and Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD). This information is needed in a timely manner and cannot wait until the registries have completed a full data specification upgrade. To facilitate obtaining this data as soon as possible, the STS is providing REDCap web pages and is asking sites to voluntarily use these forms for recording the supplemental data.

Many sites have expressed the desire to not have to switch to a different platform for recording any additional information, preferring to keep all data entry within their current vendor software. For this reason, STS is making the specifications for these data collection forms available to software vendors who are already certified on the latest versions of each registry so the new fields can be incorporated into their existing software. There is no requirement from the STS for vendors to incorporate these fields into their software and doing so is completely voluntary.”

Participation using hbCOR offers:

  • A single location to capture and audit both standard and supplemental STS ACSD & GTSD variables.
  • Ability to run AD HOC reports using the hbQuery Tool for the supplemental fields.
  • Facilitated submission to REDCap – vendors must submit the supplemental data to the STS on behalf of the organization.

Please contact the heartbase Sales Team (sales@heartbase.net) with any questions about adding this optional form to your heartbase hbCOR instance.

About heartbase, Inc.

Heartbase™ is a privately-held company founded in 1992 and designed to be intuitive & centered on the needs of the clinician. Since our inception, we have known that the most effective way to develop a robust and reflexive software platform is through collegial partnerships with our clinical & financial users. Working directly with our customers – listening to their concerns and honoring their suggestions for improvement – allows us to build a tool that is fast, efficient, and tailored specifically to the individual needs of each healthcare institution.

Our primary major business lines are the following: hbCOR, Data Capture & Reporting; hbAnalytics, Realtime Clinical & Financial Dashboards; hbRecon, Coding Reconciliation & Revenue Generation; & hbNote, Data First Structured Reporting.

Posted on June 30, 2023

Heartbase, Inc. Certified in ACC-NCDR Chest Pain – MI v3.1

CHICAGO, IL – As of June 30th, 2023, we are excited to announce that heartbase™ is officially certified by the ACC-NCDR for Version 3.1 of the Chest Pain – MI Registry Database. Heartbase users, please visit the heartbase hbKnowledgebase to view the recording of Carmen Ernst’s walkthrough of this new version – please click here. The heartbase staff highly recommends that users view the recording, as this version change was substantial in scope.

From the ACC-NCDR website:

“For more than a decade, the Chest Pain – MI Registry™ has been the single, most trusted source for outcomes-based, continuous quality improvement and remains the go-to registry for hospitals and health systems applying American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) clinical guideline recommendations.”

Participation offers:

  • Integration & Interoperability with other heartbase hbCOR registry events.
  • Interoperability options from other hospital systems, such as Epic Clarity, to allow for the pre-population of discrete fields.
  • A comprehensively streamlined & customizable electronic DCF, improving upon the flow and functionality of the ACC Online Tool, with options such as role-based access.
  • Simplified reporting with the hbQuery Tool, with measure reporting and other standard reports to follow.
  • Integration with the hbRecon Module to ensure CP-MI cases are correctly coded and billed, maximizing reimbursement.
  • Planned hbAnalytics updates to include new measure reporting and associated breakout reports.

If you’re a CP-MI data manager or abstractor and would like to take a look at our new forms, please contact heartbase Client Account Manager Alex Potanos to schedule a review session. 

About heartbase, Inc.

Heartbase™ is a privately-held company founded in 1992 and designed to be intuitive & centered on the needs of the clinician. Since our inception, we have known that the most effective way to develop a robust and reflexive software platform is through collegial partnerships with our clinical & financial users. Working directly with our customers – listening to their concerns and honoring their suggestions for improvement – allows us to build a tool that is fast, efficient, and tailored specifically to the individual needs of each healthcare institution.

Posted on April 18, 2023

Heartbase, Inc. Certified in STS CHSD v6.23.2

CHICAGO, IL – We are excited to announce that heartbase™ is officially certified by the STS  for Version 6.23.2 of the STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database. On June 13th, 2023, at 2 pm CT, heartbase clinical specialist Carmen Ernst, RN, BSN, will hold a special training class covering the ins and outs of this version. Heartbase customers can click here to register.

From the STS website:

“The STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD) is the largest database in North America dealing with congenital cardiac malformations. The CHSD contains more than 600,000 congenital heart surgery procedure records and currently has more than 1,000 participating physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists.”

Participation offers:

  • A standardized format for data collection to assess the care of patients undergoing congenital cardiothoracic procedures.
  • Semi-annual performance outcomes reports in a format that allows comparison of local outcomes against national standards.
  • An optional anesthesiology component, which enhances data collection and quality assessment for improving the care of patients undergoing cardiothoracic procedures and surgery.
  • Analysis of major outcomes and process-of-care measures that impact congenital heart surgery patients.
  • Complexity scoring to evaluate the clinical characteristics of your practice.

If you’re a CHSD data manager or abstractor and would like to take a look at our new forms, please contact heartbase Client Account Manager Alex Potanos to schedule a review session. 

About heartbase, Inc.

Heartbase™ is a privately-held company founded in 1992 and designed to be intuitive & centered on the needs of the clinician. Since our inception, we have known that the most effective way to develop a robust and reflexive software platform is through collegial partnerships with our clinical & financial users. Working directly with our customers – listening to their concerns and honoring their suggestions for improvement – allows us to build a tool that is fast, efficient, and tailored specifically to the individual needs of each healthcare institution.

Our primary major business lines are the following: hbCOR, Data Capture & Reporting; hbAnalytics, Realtime Clinical & Financial Dashboards; hbRecon, Coding Reconciliation & Revenue Generation; & hbNote, Data First Structured Reporting.

Posted on April 27, 2022

Heartbase, Inc. Certified in STS/ACC TVT v3

CHICAGO, IL – We are excited to announce that heartbase™ is now officially certified by the ACC-NCDR for Version 3 of the STS/ACC TVT Registry Database.

Highlights of the heartbase™ TVT module include:

  • Integration & Interoperability with other heartbase™ registry events.
  • Interoperability options from other hospital systems such as Epic Clarity, allowing for pre-population of discrete fields.
  • A comprehensively streamlined & customizable electronic DCF, improving upon the flow and functionality of the ACC Online Tool, with options such as role-based access.
  • Simplified reporting with the hbQuery Tool, with measure reporting and other standard reports to follow.
  • Planned integration with the hbRecon Module to ensure TVT cases are correctly coded and billed, maximizing reimbursement.
  • Planned hbAnalytics update to include measure reporting and associated breakout reports.

If you’re a TVT data manager or abstractor and would like to take a look at our new forms, please contact heartbase Client Account Manager Alex Potanos to schedule a review session. Previously led group demonstrations were recorded, and are available on the hbKnowledgebase.

About heartbase, Inc.

Since 1992, heartbase™ has provided health care centers with the most technologically innovative and clinically intuitive data management and analytic solution in the industry. Working collegially with its immense network of users, heartbase™ has created a vast library of reporting tools that provides its clients with complete control of their hospital-owned clinical data. Heartbase’s revolutionary hbCOR platform propels clinical performance, aligns clinical data with registry requirements, and unites health care systems from across our network to the most comprehensive reporting repository in the industry.

Posted on December 21, 2021

Heartbase, Inc. Certified for ACC-NCDR Auxilary Dataset Shockwave Intravascular Lithotripsy (IVL) Dataset for Collection & Submission

CHICAGO, IL – Heartbase is officially certified for the ACC-NCDR Auxiliary Shockwave Intravascular Lithotripsy (IVL) Dataset v1.0 for the CathPCI registry. This optional update has been included as part of the hbCOR v7.5.02 update package, no additional downtime will be required for sites that are interested in participating.

Highlights of the heartbase ACC-NCDR Auxiliary Shockwave Intravascular Lithotripsy (IVL) Dataset v1.0:

  • Complimentary update – no annual or set up fees.
  • Shared Data Entry Tool with the ACC-NCDR CathPCI registry.
  • Shared reporting with ACC-NCDR CathPCI registry including an interactive user-friendly query tool.
  • Integration across all heartbase registries including ACC-NCDR, STS, & GWTG.
  • Optional interoperability with the EHR and other hospital systems.

If you’re an ACC-NCDR CathPCI data manager or abstractor and have any questions, please contact heartbase trainer Carmen Ernst for more information.

About heartbase, Inc. For 30 years, heartbase has provided inventive cardiac database and reporting solutions to hospitals across the United States through a dedication to clinician-focused design and client-centered collegial partnerships. Through this commitment, heartbase has pioneered the most innovative and clinically intuitive tools for standardized & custom registries (STS, ACC-NCDR, GWTG, CMS, ELSO, State, & Custom datasets), advanced analytics (interactive dashboards & ad-hoc querying), system interoperability (EHR & other hospital system interfacing), and financial & coding reconciliation (toolkits to identify areas for increased reimbursement).

Request a Demo Want to see how we can help you with collection and reporting?