Ensuring Business Continuity Through COVID-19 & Beyond

May 20, 2020

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, DataCare has ensured continuous business operations support to clients (Fortune 500 corporations, national insurance carriers, TPAs, and more). By using DataCare’s Ahshay Software-as-a-Service platform to its fullest potential, the majority of our clients have been able to maintain their volume, turnaround times, and overall operational success. Many of DataCare’s largest clients have completed the URAC audit in mere hours with the help of our highly detailed reporting queries and have received 100% URAC accreditation scores. As states across the nation enacted shelter in place, DataCare signed on more large enterprise corporations, carriers, and managed cares than any other two-month period in the past 10 years.

Every business has felt the effects of this virus. COVID-19 has changed business across the world and the workers’ compensation industry is no exception. Resources have been reallocated, and internal medical professionals such as nurses and doctors have been called to the front lines. There is uncertainty with operations, staffing, resources, regulation changes, new tracking requirements, and overall business continuity. Nurses and physicians in utilization review and case management roles are being asked to take on additional and substantial tasks to combat the coronavirus effects within the workplace. These rapid changes have dispersed employees, depleted resources and forced heavy workloads into remote worksites. DataCare can assist in managing this unprecedented demand.These changes have placed a great burden on employers as they must adapt quickly to government announcements and policy changes. As an example, Governor Gavin Newsom of California signed an Executive Order on May 6, 2020 that significantly changed Covid-19 related Worker’s Compensation claims https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-06/newsom-workers-compensation-coronavirus-claims-covid19-presumption-california While some government announcements are anticipated and discussed in advisory groups, these announcements nonetheless require a swift response and adaptation on the part of the employer. DataCare can assist in managing this unforeseen demand.

All managed cares (case management and utilization review companies), insurance carriers, TPAs, and self-insured employers should be requiring a web-based software platform with remote capabilities and the tools to further automate production. This will allow the business to maintain operational success today and exceed pre COVID-19 figures in the future. The following features need to all be closely examined to not only help with the issues mentioned above, but to also ensure continued business operational success going forward.

Ahshay Capabilities	How will this benefit you?
SOC 2 Certified & HIPAA Compliant	DataCare’s Ahshay software is SOC 2 certified which ensures security for all your patient-sensitive information, also enabling you to maintain HIPAA compliance.
Web-based Access	Ahshay is fully web-based, ensuring business continuity from any location.
Optimal Workflow & Visibility	Claim information such as demographics, faxes, emails, letters, authorization/billing history, previous ICD/CPT codes, accepted/denied body parts, applicable patient documents, medical guidelines and more can all be accessed from just a few pages within Ahshay.
Document Management	Documents can be uploaded, auto-indexed, and searched (via OCR or Optical Character Recognition). They can be uploaded via EDI connection with another system, FTP, email/fax forwarding, or directly from your desktop/laptop. These documents are stored electronically, eliminating HIPAA risk, which is often associated with physical documents.
Calendar & Auto-task Assignment	Calendars can be used to schedule appointments for personal scheduling or for patients/injured workers with multiple claim contacts. Tasks for other users in your staff can be created online with automated email reminders to ensure effective & continued business operations.
Mobile Activity Notes	Track time and log patient progress directly from your mobile device.
Electronic Data Interchange Capability	DataCare has integrated with most major claims systems and has the capability to pull patient demographic info, contacts, documents, and more, eliminating our client’s need to use multiple platforms. This significantly helps streamline your workflows.
Integrated Medical Guidelines	Whether you are using ReedGroup, ODG, or other medical guidelines, Ahshay has the capability to directly integrate these, allowing instant access. Ahshay also has built in Return-to-Work features that track cost-savings for your clients.
Advanced Data Reporting	Quickly generate reports for a comprehensive view on various turnaround times, requesting physician scorecards, reports for audits/URAC accreditation,injury costs, and more.

DataCare’s software solutions support both small and large businesses, making the ROI substantial and often a necessity for operational consistency & business continuity. DataCare has developed many additional features specifically for regulation change and to help businesses comply with state/jurisdictional requirements, including COVID-19. For example, ICD and CPT coding/entry (Including the coding and necessary custom case stat tracking for COVID-19) is built directly into Ahshay.

Waiting to see when and if business will go back to normal is a wager that workers’ comp companies should not take. DataCare can deploy the solution completely remotely, and also conduct the training fully remotely. Waiting could prove costly as things are changing on a day by day basis and revenue could be poured into just keeping pace. The majority of DataCare clients have continued their operations and have been able to reallocate resources, leveraging our technology to adapt to a volatile environment.

Workers’ Comp processes will continue to exist and even alter as the nation navigates change in the economy and business. Companies that adapt during this time of uncertainty will be ready to streamline procedures and not lose additional ground. DataCare can efficiently deploy solutions remotely, and also conduct extensive training remotely. Our solutions will allow remotely working employees to fully train and adapt to utilizing the software during shelter in place mandates. Existing DataCare clients have continued their operations and have been able to reallocate resources and leverage DataCare technology to adapt to this volatile environment.

To learn more about the promotion or for any questions regarding this article or DataCare’s software solutions, please contact Alex Atkins at aatkins@datacare.com