Montana Flex State Profile
The Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC), a program of the National Rural Health Resource Center, provides technical assistance for the Rural Hospital Medicare Flexibility (Flex) Program in the form of information, tools and resources. State Flex Programs benefit from sharing information with one another and the Flex State Profiles are meant to be a method to encourage that sharing.
State Contacts
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Survey Results
- Participate in the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP) and encourage public reporting.
- Multi-hospital Quality Improvement (QI) Project through Clinical Improvement Studies and Medical Staff Education programs for clinical providers.
- Multi-hospital virtual peer review collaboration.
- Asthma related care and discharge education.
- Education and training for critical access hospital (CAH) staff and Trustees through QI Showcase, Champions for Quality medical staff leadership conference, regional meetings for QI coordinators and directors of nursing (DON) and CAH Board members.
- Peer utilization and clinical benchmarking.
- Performance and quality improvement resources and education.
- Collaboration with Montana Hospital Association (MHA) Hospital Engagement Network of reducing readmissions.
- Leadership Institute Series.
- Rapid improvement events utilizing lean process management.
- CFO networking.
- Coding education.
- Administrator meetings and Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Nursing Director Forum.
- Scholarships for CAH staff to attend statewide professional meetings for Health Information and Management Systems (MT-HIMSS), Medical Staff Support (credentialing) (MT-AMSS) and Health Information Management (MHIMA).
- Use Flex Monitoring Team (FMT) data to assist struggling CAHs.
- Development of a CAH utilization review network
- Ensure CAH regulatory compliance
- Trauma designation.
- Emergency medical services (EMS) manager education.
- Community Health Services Development Program (CHSD) and Form 990 Pilot Project.
- Provide Community Paramedicine education.
MT rolled out a virtual peer review project where providers gather on a secure website to jointly review cases submitted by MT critical access hospitals (CAHs). This program has a huge quality of care education component while allowing CAHs to meet ther regulatory requirement for peer review. Stay tuned as this project takes hold in 2012-2013.
State Contact Details
Carol Bischoff
Specialty Areas / Background
RHIA, Flex grant activities, networks, and meetings. Carol has worked with the Flex program for eight years, the last two as Flex Director.
Flex Coordinator since January 2003
Kathy Lubke
Specialty Areas / Background
Regulations, meeting planning, and budgeting
Flex Program Manager since May 2008
Jennifer Wagner
Flex Program Specialist Since November 2012
Kathy Wilcox
Specialty Areas / Background
Eight years as the Executive Director of quality and risk management in a CAH, American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Medical Technologist since 1977.
Flex Rural Hospital Quality Coordinator since October 2005