Sentry came in at No. 19 on the list of Fast Tech Award recipients, an honor given to companies that “experienced significant revenue growth from 2009 to 2010,” according to the SFBJ site.

“We are proud to be recognized for our outstanding financial growth and achievements,” said Travis Leonardi, President and Founder of Sentry. “It is an honor to be listed among South Florida’s technology leaders. Our mission is to educate and provide the tools to maintain compliance and stay within the intended use of the 340B drug pricing program.”

Technology leaders were honored at an awards gathering on Thursday, October 13, 2011 at the Westin Fort Lauderdale. The Fast Tech Awards were determined by the SFBJ, who evaluated companies headquartered in South Florida that have been in business at least three years, demonstrate a solid operating history with solutions-based products, display significant revenue growth and make a substantial contribution to South Florida’s economy.

In addition to those award qualifications, Sentry has seen dramatic increase in employee numbers, more than tripling in size in the past three years and opening satellite offices in both Indianapolis and Austin during that time.

To learn more about Sentry’s inclusion in the 2011 Fast Tech Awards, refer to the original SFBJ article.

The purpose of the event, the HIMSS12 Interoperability Showcase Healthcare Business Community DesignSession, was to create use cases and design the Interoperability Showcase for the main 2012 HIMSS event. This collaborative design session involved key healthcare leaders, organizations and members of HIMSS G7, including Sentry.

“We’re excited to be at the table with other significant policy leaders to help focus and guide the next evolution in healthcare contracting and delivery of healthcare services,” Kirsh said.

Kirsh worked with a variety of organizations to develop a use case about Integrating Hospice into End of Life Care for healthcare organizations. The goal of this use case and the other showcase designs is to improve the overall healthcare experience by leveraging technology for better patient care and increased effectiveness for providers and stakeholders.

For more information about HIMSS G7 and Sentry’s work with other healthcare thought leaders, visit http://www.himss.org/asp/topics_medicalbanking_g7roundtable.asp?faid=502&tid=103.

DEERFIELD BEACH, FL —July 28, 2011—Sentry Data Systems, Inc., a healthcare business intelligence technology solutions company headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Florida, announces the opening of a new office in Austin, Texas on August 1, 2011. The satellite office—located at 2028 East Ben White Blvd., Suite 300, Austin, Texas 78741—will support and better address the company’s technology needs. The office is slated to be staffed with a Technical Analyst, Senior Project Manager, Quality Assurance (QA) Manager, Developer, Clinical Director and Office Administrator.

“The opening of Sentry’s new Austin office is an example of our continued growth,” says Travis Leonardi President and Founder of Sentry Data Systems. “Austin is a hotbed for technology advancements and is the perfect place for us to locate as we deliver on our commitment to provide innovative technology-driven products designed to meet our customers’ needs.”

Often referred to as “Silicon Hills,” Austin is known for its professional campuses serving many of the country’s leading technology companies.  As a result, Austin attracts and maintains the highest level of technology talent, often beginning at the University level.  Accordingly, Sentry has partnered with The University of Texas at Austin’s Health IT Program.

“We are thrilled to have Sentry Data Systems as a new supporter for our innovative Health IT program. Their stature as a market leader in the field will bring valuable expertise to our program and our students,” said Dr. Leanne Field, Health IT program director.

The new office will be Sentry’s second satellite office, following the success of their office expansion in Indianapolis, which opened in April 2009.

For more information about Sentry Data Systems Healthcare Business Intelligence Solutions visit www.SentryDS.com or call 800.411.4566.

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin Health IT program was created to address the growing demand for health IT professionals. It offers an intensive nine-week program that leads to a Health Information Management and Exchange Specialist certificate. The program features expert faculty in both theoretical and applied areas of health IT, six weeks of coursework with hands-on experience working with six different electronic health record (EHR) systems, a 12-day practicum that immerses students in real world experiences with health IT companies or organizations, and job placement services. The program takes place in the university’s on campus Health IT Learning Center, which features a mock clinic. For more information regarding The University of Texas at Austin and the Health IT program, contact Lee Clippard, Director for Communications for the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin at 512-232-0675 or lclippard@mail.utexas.edu.

William Kirsh DO, MPH, Chief Medical Officer at Sentry Data Systems, Inc., a healthcare business intelligence technology solutions company, participated as a contributor and editor of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Revenue Cycle Task Force White Paper on The Future of Revenue Cycle: Preparing for Near-Term Change, published in May 2011. Due to a variety of revenue cycle-related changes occurring in healthcare, the HIMSS Revenue Cycle Improvement Task Force selected five changes that merit immediate attention, discussion, and planning.

Collectively, the document addresses patient access functions, including scheduling, registration and preauthorization, service delivery and charge capture, and business office functions. Each functional section of this piece stands on its own, enabling revenue cycle professionals to focus on their specific area of expertise.

“This document is for any revenue cycle professional, or any healthcare executive whose job function is impacted directly by the revenue cycle, such as the CEO, CFO, or others,” Dr. Kirsh said. “The goal is to raise awareness for all revenue cycle professionals about issues that will confront them in the near and medium-term. These are not hypotheticals or possibilities. These are real-world changes happening now. They are substantial, and they can be very impactful.”

Dr. Kirsh’s participation as a HIMSS committee member came about because of his role as a critical matter subject expert and contributor with deep insights resulting from more than 25 years working as a practicing physician and over seven years as an executive and developer of revenue cycle management and healthcare business intelligence software at Sentry.

Sentry has long been a pioneer in taking disparate hospital data systems and merging them together to gain actionable insights for financial impact within a quarter. Dr. Kirsh leads Sentry’s efforts to deliver healthcare technology solutions that not only lead to greater financial impact for customers but ultimately result in better patient outcomes.

“Dr. Kirsh is an integral part of our team and is intimate with the real world impact of sound revenue cycle management and its significant impact on patient outcomes,” said Travis Leonardi, CEO of Sentry. “We are extremely pleased that HIMSS recognized Sentry for our thought leadership and insights. Anyone involved in hospital revenue cycle management needs to not only read this white paper but also needs to start putting its findings into practice. Sentry can help manage that process for hospitals nationwide.”

The white paper addresses several critical topics for revenue cycle management including The American Recovery and Reimbursement Act that will impact incentive payments made available for utilization of certified electronic health records (EHRs). The publication also addresses the 5010 and its focus on the electronic exchange of administrative and financial information between providers and plans, The Affordable Care Act that includes numerous health-related provisions such as prohibiting denial of coverage/claims and expanding Medicaid, the ICD-10 and its significant changes to increased specificity and coding, and the Quality Measures highlighting an increased focus on quality for proactive healthcare organizations to gain ground and increase revenue.

The full HIMSS article The Future of Revenue Cycle: Preparing for Near-Term Change and access to the white paper are available online at www.SentryDS.com/resources.

About William D. Kirsh, DO, MPH

William D. Kirsh DO, MPH has over 25 years of medical and business experience. Dr. Kirsh is heavily involved in the development of Sentry’s products and lends his clinical and healthcare financial expertise to many areas of their operations. Prior to his role at Sentry, Dr. Kirsh founded eAppeals, LLC, a technology company that simplified the handling of insurance claims appeals for both healthcare providers and consumers. He also served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer for Foundation Health Plan of Florida and was the Vice-President of Medical Affairs and Quality Assurance at Physician Corporation of America, Inc. Dr. Kirsh is a published author and member of several medical boards, he holds degrees from Florida State University, Nova-Southeastern University of Health Sciences, and The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene & Public Health. Dr. Kirsh performed his residency training at The Johns Hopkins University and actively practices hospital-based medicine. He holds appointments as clinical faculty at Nova Southeastern University, College of Osteopathic Medicine and in the School of Public Health. He is also Chairman of the Board of The ARC of South Florida and founding member and Executive Vice President of International Health Initiatives.

In the coming years, an important regulatory change will drastically alter hospital profits and reduce cash flow: ICD 10 coding requirements.

Hospitals, physicians, health systems and any other risk-bearing entities need to be aware of the challenges caused by the impending change. In order to deal with new requirements effectively, these organizations must have a powerful Business Intelligence (BI) software application able to aggregate and analyze a high volume of divergent data. This data will be vital to efforts to turn disparate information feeds into opportunities for effective analysis and action that maintains and improves fiscal results.

The new ICD 10 coding regulations are going push many software applications into obsolescence, and a hospital’s inability to accurately track diagnoses related to purchases and dispensations billed to third party payers will greatly affect cash flow.

Many healthcare organizations are currently focusing their energies and resources on Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), but EMRs by themselves will not provide the only platform to allow the evolution of manipulating data to improve the financial viability of the hospital.

For years, healthcare organizations have relied upon guesswork to control costs, increase revenues, and improve care quality. As providers face changes in reimbursement practices and variations in contracts like Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), they must begin basing decisions on timely, factual data encompassing an entire care network.

But this kind of holistic data analysis and decision-making is not possible with the fragmented information technology infrastructures many healthcare organizations are currently using. Most institutions are not capable of managing third party contract requirements – like global contracting and payments that are linked to performance – and integrated delivery systems are definitely not prepared to weather the critical financial effects of migrating from ICD 9 to ICD 10 diagnosis standards. This migration directly effects reimbursement and cash flow, and providers will need software applications that focus on small variations of services and their costs in order to achieve desired financial outcomes.

The complex nature of medical management demands solutions that understand third party payer contracts and provide utilization controls to maximize profit. Institutions must be able to understand variations in care by informing their physician network and improve overall efficiency through continuous background analytics and alert engines. All of these chances to grow and improve require the ability to analyze a voluminous amount of aggregated data, the kind of concentrated computing power available only using a healthcare BI solution.

Health delivery organizations shouldn’t see the shift from ICD 9 Coding to ICD 10 Coding requirements as an obstacle, but as an opportunity to gain access to a powerful arsenal of actionable data from a BI application that is prepared to manage new coding requirements and process vast databases of patient, provider and pharmaceutical information. Without any further infrastructure investment, health institutions can benefit from a web-delivered BI solution to receive an integrated view of their business and clinical activities – from supply chain to the revenue cycle to patient care.

Integrating data, converting it to information and making effective business decisions is a powerful step toward overall health reform and increased performance.

William Kirsh, DO, MPH, is the Chief Medical Officer of Sentry Data Systems, Inc., and has decades of experience as a physician in addition to being a recognized and respected speaker at healthcare industry conferences and panels across the country.

Sentry is poised to help hospitals and entities that may come under review due to the Affordable Care Act. Recently, the 340B drug pricing program has had heavy scrutiny from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Sentry offers hospitals 340B solutions that maintain compliance and produce an audit trail of transactions.

“Today we support hundreds of hospitals across the US,” Travis Leonardi, President and CEO of Sentry said. “These hospitals trust Sentry because of our extensive 340B experience. Our solutions not only give hospitals and health systems the confidence that their entity is in compliance, but they also provide a maximum capture rate and improve financial performance.”

When utilizing a 340B Contract Pharmacy to extend the benefits of 340B to your patients, the technology needed to maintain compliance is significantly more complex than the requirements needed for a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) or Community Health Center (CHC). Sentry has hundreds of contract pharmacies using its systems today, and it has the experience and infrastructure in place to provide both a comprehensive and fast deployment for new clients. As the 340B program continues to be further scrutinized by various agencies, it is critical that hospitals and contract pharmacies reevaluate their current 340B accounting procedures and are fully prepared for an audit.  “Our mission is to constantly demonstrate and deploy 340B “Best Practices”, as well as to educate and provide the proper tools to maintain compliance and stay within the intended use of the invaluable 340B drug pricing  program. With the proper tracking and auditing tools, there is no need to increase the costs associated with increased regulation” said Travis Leonardi.

“As drug manufacturers attempt to redefine the definition of a patient, inquiry letters are being sent to covered entities every month about their current 340B utilization,” Leonardi said. “We are positioned to help these entities respond to those inquiries with confidence that they are using the 340B program in compliance with regulations.”

Sentry’s solutions are user-friendly and include a range of features, such as real-time point of sale eligibility, execution on entity’s specific policies and procedures, automated utilization of charges to entity’s specific 11 digit NDC purchases, “just in time” inventory tracking, and much more.

Learn More about Maintaining 340B Compliance.

This free educational resource gives guidance on:

• What a Charge Master is and why it’s important.
• How to identify and reduce missing charges.
• Ways to increase savings through procurement strategies.
• The opportunity to gain overall improvement in operational visibility.
• Best practices for operating a current, thorough, and well-maintained Charge Master.

Read more about the importance of maintaining your Charge Master in a detailed White Paper compiled by Sentry Data Systems at www.SentryDS.com/resources.

Omnicell, Inc., (Nasdaq: OMCL) a leading provider of system solutions to acute healthcare facilities, today announced a partnership agreement to co-market Sentry Data Systems’ Sentinel RCM™ application, which has a sophisticated 340B solution component. Sentry specializes in providing solutions to address a variety of financial challenges found within hospitals and pharmacies while Omnicell’s WorkflowRx™ software offers a complete inventory management system for hospital pharmacies.

The Sentinel RCM™ software will integrate with Omnicell’s new WorkflowRx 7.0 software to address the inventory management, financial reconciliation and compliance aspect of participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

The Federal 340B Drug Pricing Program provides access to reduced price prescription drugs to health care facilities certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as “covered entities.” Hospitals with a Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) adjustment percentage of greater than 11.75 percent meet the adjustment percentage requirement to participate in the 340B Program. Hospitals must also meet other qualifying criteria (http://www.hrsa.gov/opa/dsh.htm). Significant savings on pharmaceuticals may be seen by entities that participate in this program.

“As IDNs (Integrated Delivery Networks) face reductions in reimbursements, managing the cost and inventory turns of drugs in the revenue cycle will become increasingly important. The integration of Sentry’s Sentinel RCM™ software with Omnicell’s WorkflowRx will improve visibility and management of hospital drug costs which saves our clients time and money while improving their operations,” said Travis Leonardi, Sentry Data Systems’ founder and president.

“We are pleased to be partnering with Sentry to offer an easy-to-use, proven technology for our customers,” said Marga Ortigas-Wedekind, Omnicell vice president, global marketing and product development. “The partnership with Sentry will allow Omnicell to offer our pharmacy customers a 340B solution to enhance their inventory management capabilities while realizing significant medication cost savings.”

SOURCE: PR Newswire

As the nation’s largest pharmacy services company, the mission of CVS Caremark is to manage pharmacy costs for our clients and their members, improve health care outcomes and provide broad access and choice for consumers. We were surprised and disappointed by Walgreens’ announced intention not to participate on a go forward basis in CVS Caremark PBM pharmacy networks. Our network of participating pharmacies is currently the largest ever maintained by Caremark Pharmacy Services, our PBM business, with more than 64,000 participants (only about 7,000 of which are Walgreens stores). Walgreens is offered comparable reimbursement rates as other large national retail chains, including CVS/pharmacy.

Despite this, Walgreens continues to take steps that make it a high cost pharmacy provider and disrupt members. Walgreens has tried this approach several times in the past, targeting employers, health insurers and government entities. Today’s announcement by Walgreens is nothing more than a transparent effort to raise its reimbursement rates at the expense of plan sponsors and members and illustrates an inability to adapt to the demands of the marketplace in today’s challenging and rapidly evolving health care environment. CVS Caremark is focused on being responsive to our clients’ needs and offering them innovative solutions that reduce costs and improve health care outcomes. The fact is our clients, not retail pharmacies, dictate plan designs. Unfortunately, Walgreens has a demonstrated pattern of publicly objecting to plan designs not to their liking, such as mail based programs and other innovative programs that are designed to reduce costs and meet client needs.

CVS Caremark remains open to discussions regarding Walgreens continued participation in our PBM pharmacy networks. In fact, we just recently met with Walgreens management regarding these issues. However, we will continue to prioritize the needs of our clients and their members, including access to convenient and affordable pharmacy care. Furthermore, we believe a public relations strategy that threatens network withdrawal is not a proper way to resolve business issues and is not in the best interests of patient care.

SOURCE CVS Caremark
http://info.cvscaremark.com/newsroom/press-releases/cvs-caremark-issues-statement-response-walgreens-unexpected-announcement

Alegent Health Case Study
Saint Barnabas Case Study