1. How Collaborative HIPAA Training Saved $2,000,000 Kay Crews HIPAA Project Manager UT Southwestern Health Systems kcrews@mednet.swmed.edu Mary M. Rydesky Interim Director, I/S Advanced Solutions mary.rydesky@childrens.com

2. Six Contiguous Covered Entities Academic Medical Center: UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Four hospitals: Children’s Medical Center, Parkland Health & Hospital System, St. Paul University Hospital, Zale-Lipshy University Hospital Physician Billing Service: UT Southwestern Health Systems Collaboration Key to Success Committee HIPAA Joint Advisory Committee –“C-level” executives

3. Situation HIPAA privacy deadline in <six months Shared physician base Shared systems Decentralized training & credentialing New Resources UT Southwestern Health System consultant HIPAA personnel named at each facility

4. Resources Self-directed work team No full time staff Consultant (who had other duties, too) Medical staff champion Buy-in from executive management

5. Challenges No existing campus-wide training delivery system No campus-wide history of collaboration on administrative issues No campus-wide identifier Difficulty verifying & eliminating duplicate providers No budget Tight time frame

6. What Did We Hope to Gain? Anticipated Features Single-source for certifying HIPAA training Shared costs Shared standard for curriculum Online enrollment Goals Unify access Offer web-based training Track & report learners’ accomplishments Develop curricula for groups e.g., researchers, employee groups

7. First Phase: November 2002 Identified role in Education Committee Diverse skills –education & curriculum development –HIPAA privacy regulations –documentation, analysis, & finance Identified goals & mission statement –Referring to these maintained focus

8. First Phase: November 2002 Agreed on weekly timeline –Added “by whens” to agendas, reminding everyone of obligations Identified requirements for vendors Identified potential vendors –Scheduled full day of vendor presentations to gain clear comparison

9. Second Phase: January 2003 Selected vendor, signed contract, set financial arrangements with partners –Included CFO of one of the private entities on the committee Identified vendor content that we wanted to modify –Selected vendor that provided content that we could modify locally

10. Vendor Selection (January) Selected HIPAAprof –Easy to modify content –Extensive existing HIPAA content (100+ lessons, including research content) –Ability to create new courses –Enterprise model for tracking across six organizations –Supported attaching physicians to multiple institutions training “counted” at multiple institutions

11. Third Phase: Early March 2003 Moncrief Cancer Center, another related but distant entity, joined All seven entities agreed on training methodology & how to classify training needs Level 1: Basics only Level 2: Contact with PHI, but not with patients Level 3: Contact with PHI & with patients Level R: Research (combined with level 2 or 3)

12. Third Phase: Early March 2003 Content redesigned to support unique needs Entered 20,000 physicians & employees into system Physicians from Medical School & hospitals agreed to act as beta-testers

13. Responses… At initial discussion - January 2003 Response: great idea Second response: can it also do……? Three months later - April 14, 2003 Many physicians appreciated the concept of the training – including “Important Points” & interactives that reinforced test material Trained >50% of 5,400 physicians remainder included “town docs” Additional departments considering HIPAAprof for other, non-HIPAA curricula

14. Current State Where we are today…. Trained >16,000 workforce Saved >8,000 hours of physician time Physician collections on campus average over $250/hour; therefore, total savings were >$2,000,000 Working with remaining physicians to complete training

15. Progress And tomorrow…. Developing method to update student profiles Other training programs possible billing compliance systems training

16. How We Work with HIPAAprof

17. HIPAAProf Company Structure

18. Company Administration Screen

19. Adding & Editing Courses

20. Sample Lesson

21. Course Summary

22. What We Learned Promotion is essential Pre-communications via emails, letters from senior administrators, departmental communications Accountability program including sanctions & disciplinary actions (coordinated across the organizations)

23. What We Learned Vendor relations can make a project During the early phase of installation, contact with the vendor was daily, or more frequent Reporting tools are essential Must be flexible, easy to use, able to answer unanticipated questions

24. Success Measures Went live four months after first meeting … & before the target date Successful collaboration in support of physicians –time savings >8,000 physician hours –clarity of message across organizations Bonus - use of HIPAAprof for staff training –no additional cost –LMS loaded - other training possible

25. Success Measures No entity has <80% of physicians trained Training available to community-based physicians, as well as to UT Southwestern faculty Software costs divided evenly between all seven entities for expediency

26. Into the Future Reporting Curricula development HIPAA security Course development & publishing Continuing to work with HIPAAprof on enhancements to meet our specific needs