CPSI Announces Partnership with ChartWise Medical Systems to Offer Enhanced TruBridge Clinical Documentation Solutions to Improve Reimbursement, Compliance and Quality Scores for Providers

MOBILE, Ala. (September 23, 2020) — CPSI (NASDAQ: CPSI), a healthcare solutions company, and ChartWise Medical Systems Inc. (ChartWise), a three-time best in KLAS award-winning computer-assisted clinical document improvement (CDI) company, today announced a partnership that will help healthcare organizations of all sizes improve clinical documentation accuracy and overall medical reimbursement.

To strategically manage costs, while also requiring improvements in the quality of patient care, payers continue to shift from fee-for-service to fee-for-value reimbursement models. However, providers struggle with incomplete or inaccurate documentation that often results in incorrect billing, reimbursement and quality reporting. By leveraging the ChartWise computer-assisted CDI software, physicians and clinical documentation specialists (CDS) have the tools and guidance necessary to improve documentation quality, resulting in reduced claim denials and more accurate reimbursement.

Dr. Jon Elion, founder of ChartWise, said, “We have spent the last 25 years focusing on technology innovations that help healthcare providers work smarter, not harder. ChartWise enables patient care to be delivered in a more efficient and effective manner, while empowering the clinicians and staff with the tools they need every day.”

“TruBridge provides end-to-end revenue cycle management products and services to healthcare organizations of all sizes,” said Chris Fowler, president of TruBridge. “Through this partnership with ChartWise, we will enhance our existing CDI service with the software and technology that will ultimately improve reimbursement for clients. With this electronic health record (EHR)-agnostic offering, we believe there will be real interest in the added value to the bottom line of many healthcare organizations – especially considering the current financial dynamics being experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Steven Mason, president and chief executive officer of ChartWise, said, “We are proud and excited to have a mutually beneficial partnership that will improve the value proposition of the TruBridge CDI offering. Our award-winning solution with built-in intelligent expertise guides physicians and CDS toward a complete diagnostic picture, automatically analyzing lab data, medications and procedures to help identify complications and additional diagnoses that have not been specified completely in the notes. The result is improved patient acuity determination, quality scores and revenue capture.”

About CPSI
CPSI is a leading provider of healthcare solutions and services for community hospitals, their clinics and post-acute care facilities. Founded in 1979, CPSI is the parent of four companies – Evident, LLC, American HealthTech, Inc., TruBridge, LLC, and iNetXperts, Corp. d/b/a Get Real Health. Our combined companies are focused on helping improve the health of the communities we serve, connecting communities for a better patient care experience, and improving the financial operations of our clients. Evident provides comprehensive EHR solutions for community hospitals and their affiliated clinics. American HealthTech is one of the nation’s largest providers of EHR solutions and services for post-acute care facilities. TruBridge focuses on providing business, consulting and managed IT services, along with its complete RCM solution, for all care settings. Get Real Health focuses on solutions aimed at improving patient engagement for individuals and healthcare providers. For more information, visit www.cpsi.com.

About TruBridge
TruBridge, a member of the CPSI family of companies, provides business and consulting services, and an end-to-end Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) solution. With our arsenal of RCM offerings that include a HFMA Peer Reviewed® product and an HMFA Peer Reviewed® complete outsourcing service, TruBridge helps hospitals, physician clinics, and skilled nursing organizations of all sizes become more efficient at serving their communities. For further information visit www.trubridge.com.

About ChartWise
ChartWise Medical Systems, Inc., based in Wakefield, RI, is a healthcare software firm and the developer of ChartWise CDI, a web-based solution for Computer-Assisted Clinical Documentation Improvement. ChartWise CDI’s built-in clinical intelligence and efficient workflow assists physicians and clinical documentation specialists with increased completeness and accuracy of documentation, risk-adjustment, reimbursement and quality scores. Developed by renowned physician Jon Elion, M.D., ChartWise CDI is the only clinical documentation software that translates clinical language used by physicians into accurate diagnostic language required for documentation and reimbursement. ChartWise CDI has provided a positive ROI between five (5) to eighteen (18) times the cost of the software for every client who has used ChartWise CDI. ChartWise was recognized in the 2016 and 2017 Inc. 5000 List as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies, placing first among all Rhode Island-based businesses on the list each year. ChartWise has also been a KLAS award winner for the CDI software category for three (3) consecutive years.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified generally by the use of forward-looking terminology and words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “believes,” “projects,” “targets,” “predicts,” “intends,” “plans,” “potential,” “may,” “continue,” “should,” “will” and words of comparable meaning. Without limiting the generality of the preceding statement, all statements in this press release relating to the prospects of CPSI’s partnership with ChartWise are forward-looking statements. We caution investors that any such forward-looking statements are only predictions and are not guarantees of future performance. Certain risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Such factors may include: risks related to TruBridge’s ability to successfully leverage ChartWise’s computer-assisted CDI software to improve reimbursement for, and add value to, healthcare organizations; the impact of COVID-19 and related economic disruptions which have materially affected the Company’s revenue and could materially affect the Company’s gross margin and income, as well as the Company’s financial position and/or liquidity; actions to be taken by the Company in response to the pandemic; the legal, regulatory and administrative developments that occur at the federal, state and local levels; potential disruptions, breaches, or other incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of the Company’s or its partners’ information systems, including unauthorized access to or theft of patient, business associate, or other sensitive information or inability to provide patient care because of system unavailability; changes in revenues due to declining hospital demand and deteriorating macroeconomic conditions (including increases in uninsured and underinsured patients); potential increased expenses related to labor or other expenditures; and the impact of our substantial indebtedness and the ability to refinance such indebtedness on acceptable terms or at all, as well as risks associated with disruptions in the financial markets and the business of financial institutions as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic which could impact us from a financial perspective. Numerous other risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Such factors include risk factors described from time to time in CPSI’s public releases and reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, CPSI’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10 Q. We also caution investors that the forward-looking information described herein represents CPSI’s outlook only as of this date, and CPSI undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or development after the date of this press release.

A conversation with Laurie Prescott, CDI Education Director for HCPro

*Laurie L. Prescott, RN, MSN, CCDS, CDIP, CRC, CCDS-O is CDI Education Director at HCPro.

As an acknowledged industry authority in healthcare compliance for over 30 years, HCPro delivers information, education, training and consulting products and services that meet the specialized needs of the healthcare industry. Its team of renowned CDI educators, led by Laurie Prescott, have applied their substantial clinical and coding experience to the design of an electronic query template library for Artifact Health. The library provides compliant templates and process guidance so healthcare facilities can better capture the true complexity of their patient population.

HCPro and Artifact Health have partnered to provide hospitals with a mobile physician query platform that utilizes a library of electronic query templates developed and maintained by HCPro/ACDIS experts. We spoke with Laurie about the impact of COVID-19 on U.S. hospitals and the importance of clinical documentation improvement efforts at this time.

COVID-19 has caused unprecedented turmoil for hospitals in major cities across the U.S. at capacity with healthcare providers working overtime to triage and treat patients.

Why is proper coding of patient hospital stays important right now?
Many people associate proper coding with hospital reimbursement. However, during a pandemic coding actually plays a much more significant role in understanding how deadly diseases quickly spread from country to country, like Ebola, SARS and now COVID-19.

So yes, proper coding of COVID-19 will be important for hospitals to stay afloat financially – to get reimbursed for all of the services they are performing and to apply for funding from the government to keep them in business. But, the coding of COVID-19 will be more critical for statistical reasons and advancing the study of the disease to hopefully prevent similar outbreaks in the future.

How does the coding of patient data inform public health decisions?
The fact is, ICD-10 codes were designed for epidemiological purposes – to track, report and better understand public health diseases.

Public health officials and scientists look at coded patient data to better understand and tell the story of exactly how diseases are spread, the symptoms and complications, the underlying conditions that influenced outcomes, the impact on age groups and gender, how many people died and how the outbreak compares country to country.

The rapid spread and high mortality associated with COVID-19 is further underscoring the importance of capturing codes correctly.

How important are Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) initiatives during COVID?
During a crisis or a pandemic like COVID-19 the hospital’s CDI team becomes even more essential. Increased patient encounters and disease information must be captured and coded correctly to keep the hospital solvent and provide accurate data for research studies and pandemic modeling.

Healthcare providers must have guidance around properly documenting COVID-19 patients and the complications that arise from the disease which can have broad or vague symptoms, such as respiratory issues. CDI teams are the educators. We ensure that providers have the information they need to document accurately for proper coding.

How is HCPro/ACDIS helping hospitals right now?
We are supporting hospitals with guidance on documenting COVID-19. We have developed a compliant COVID-19 physician query template which helps increase the specificity and accuracy of the symptoms and complications resulting from the disease. This new COVID-19 template is available to the hospitals we work with, and we are grateful this type of information can be used by physicians, public health officials and researchers to more accurately map the disease and its widespread impact.

Through our partnership with Artifact Health hospitals can utilize our full library of compliant CDI physician query templates. Our library is kept compliant and updated for our hospitals to incorporate new coding guidelines as well as new diseases, like COVID-19.

HCPro Partners with Artifact Health to Provide Compliant, Time-Saving Clinical Documentation Improvement Templates for Provider Queries

Partnership provides hospitals with extensive library of compliant, CDI physician query templates built into mobile platform

Artifact Health, which provides the first and only mobile platform that streamlines the physician query process, announced today that it has partnered with HCPro to provide and maintain a comprehensive library of compliant clinical documentation improvement (CDI) physician query templates. Artifact’s HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based platform engages physicians, CDI specialists and coders with an easier and faster process to drive improvements in hospital and physician coding accuracy and publicly-reported quality measures.

As an acknowledged industry authority in healthcare compliance for over 30 years, HCPro delivers information, education, training and consulting products and services that meet the specialized needs of the healthcare industry. Its team of renowned CDI educators—including Laurie Prescott, Sharme Brodie, and Allen Frady—have applied their substantial clinical and coding experience to the design of the template library, which will provide both compliance and process guidance so healthcare facilities can better capture the true complexity of their patient population.

The query template library will address critical areas of query practice, including:

  • ICD-10-CM/PCS coding classifications
  • DRG groupings
  • MCC/CC diagnoses
  • Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCCs)
  • Severity of illness/risk of mortality
  • And more

“HCPro is a pioneer in delivering high-quality information to support the ever changing needs of healthcare business,” says HCPro chief product officer David Cella. “Collaborating with a leading-edge CDI solution like Artifact broadens HCPro’s mission to provide specialized, expert-reviewed content and education to the CDI community.”

Typically, the query process is onerous and time-consuming for physicians. With Artifact Health’s mobile platform, physicians respond to a query compliantly in seconds, often with as few as three taps on their smartphone. Query activity is automatically tracked and reported, rather than manually recorded by CDI specialists and coders, and available in real-time dashboards and reports.

“This partnership provides a unique opportunity to extend HCPro’s deep CDI knowledge and expertise to physicians in a way that ensures high-quality, accurate clinical documentation of patient care,” said Marisa MacClary, Co-founder and CEO of Artifact Health. “With Artifact, hospitals and health systems can immediately integrate HCPro’s standardized, compliant query templates and educational guidance into their physician query workflow to improve quality measure capture and reimbursement accuracy.”

About HCPro
HCPro, a Simplify Compliance Brand, is a leading provider of integrated information, education, training, and consulting products and services in the vital areas of healthcare regulation and compliance. HCPro is a pioneer in the delivery of Web-based information, resources and content on “The Business of Healthcare” to managers in the healthcare industry. HCPro developed a series of unique Internet-based solutions, including Web sites, online information centers, electronic product distribution, electronic site licenses, and strategic distribution alliances. See www.hcpro.com for more information.

About Artifact Health
Artifact Health provides the first and only mobile platform that streamlines the physician query process so hospitals can improve the quality of patient records and ensure full reimbursement for services. Already in use by thousands of physicians, Artifact simplifies a traditionally time-consuming, multi-step process allowing physicians to respond to queries anytime, anywhere in seconds. By shortening average physician response time to queries by 20x, Artifact helps CDI specialists and coders receive more accurate responses faster, which can translate into millions of dollars in revenue for hospitals.

AHIMA Joins with Artifact Health, Provides Standardized, Compliant Templates For Platform that Streamlines Time-Consuming Physician Queries

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has joined with Artifact Health to provide and maintain a comprehensive library of compliant physician query templates utilized within Artifact’s HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based platform. Artifact provides the first and only mobile platform that streamlines the physician query process, engaging physicians, clinical documentation improvement (CDI) specialists and coders with an easier and faster process to drive improvements in hospital and physician coding accuracy and publicly reported quality measures.

The leading source of health information management (HIM) education, training and policy making, AHIMA recently published its Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant Query Practice (2019 Update) to establish and support industry-wide best practices for the function of clinical documentation querying. Through this partnership with Artifact Health, AHIMA will widely disseminate its standardized, electronic query templates and educational guidance for physicians, CDI and HIM professionals to help clarify clinical documentation and ultimately improve the quality of patient records.

“It’s the perfect alliance – Artifact makes it easy for physicians to respond to queries quickly, and AHIMA ensures query template information provided will be compliant,” said AHIMA CEO Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PHD, CAE. “Efficient and accurate coding is vital to meet compliance, and it’s our responsibility as leaders of HIM to guide this process and ensure accurate health records and proper reimbursement for hospitals and physicians.”

Typically, the query process is onerous and time-consuming for physicians. With Artifact Health’s mobile platform, physicians respond to a query compliantly in seconds, often with as few as three taps on their smartphone. Query activity is automatically tracked and reported, rather than manually recorded by CDI specialists and coders, and available in real-time dashboards and reports.

“The alliance between AHIMA and Artifact Health is an industry first for standardizing compliant query workflow,” said Marisa MacClary, Co-founder and CEO of Artifact Health. “Hospitals and health systems can integrate AHIMA’s world-class knowledge and best practices into their physician query process and be assured queries and educational guidance are accurate, compliant and current.”

About AHIMA
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) represents more than 103,000 health information professionals in the United States and around the world. AHIMA is committed to promoting and advocating for high quality research and best practices in health information and to actively contributing to the development and advancement of health information professionals worldwide.

About Artifact Health
Artifact Health provides the first and only mobile platform that streamlines the physician query process so hospitals can improve the quality of patient records and ensure full reimbursement for services. Already in use by thousands of physicians, Artifact simplifies a traditionally time-consuming, multi-step process allowing physicians to respond to queries anytime, anywhere in seconds. By shortening average physician response time to queries by 20x, Artifact helps CDI specialists and coders receive more accurate responses faster, which can translate into millions of dollars in revenue for hospitals.