Case Studies

HOW DO WE ENSURE OUR GME FUNDING IS COMPLETELY MAXIMIZED?

THE CLIENT

Germane was contacted by a small hospital system consisting of 4 hospitals. Within this hospital system, their flagship hospital contains legacy residency and fellowship programs through an affiliation with a local medical school, one has previous cap issues, and the other two are non-teaching hospitals. Health System leadership was interested in learning how to optimize the current resident operations at their flagship teaching hospital and work to grow the GME footprint in their non-teaching hospitals to meet their organizational goals.

THE CHALLENGE

Germane is challenged with identifying and receiving all applicable GME payments from previous Medicare Cost Reports. If needed, Germane will help the small hospital system refile these cost reports. A CMS Cost Report Review was conducted by Germane to evaluate the hospital’s FTE count. Of course, communication with CMS will be crucial along this process. Another challenge is making use of the entire hospital system to work as efficiently as possible.

THE SOLUTION

To validate the Resident FTE count, Germane partnered with the hospital system to correct the counting process and ensure minimal audit risk. In regard to growing the hospital system’s GME Footprint, Germane will work with leadership to develop financial considerations and incentives for new GME programs. Also, Germane modeled the system’s GME development to navigate any financial opportunity. 

THE OUTCOME

The small hospital system benefitted in many ways. To begin, Germane was able to correct their Resident FTE Counting Process, and this resulted in the hospital system receiving an additional $6 Million in CMS Reimbursement. With this extra funding, monetary investments were appropriated to new resources, technology, capital development, and faculty raises. As an indirect effect, these investments increased faculty satisfaction within the hospital system.