Small clinics and health care providers around Alaska are getting help with their staffing, administrative and technical needs under a new program operated by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
Working in tandem with the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, the group has developed a Business Resource Center to assist tribal health organizations in a variety of ways, said Paul Sherry, CEO of the consortium.
He said there are about 30 different health care groups serving scores of Alaska Native communities, and the need for support varies depending on the size of the organization.
Larger groups, such as the Norton Sound Health Corporation and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation run their own hospitals and don't require as much assistance with day-to-day operations, Sherry said.
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
"For the most part, those folks have pretty comprehensive business systems," he said. "But then there are another dozen or so who represent several communities each, and another dozen who just take care of their own communities. Those medium and small groups are the ones who see more challenges."
Sherry said the resource center provides warehouse support for items bound for the Bush, and it also provides a way to keep expenses down on everything from food service materials to office supplies and medical equipment.
"We buy in bulk, so we can help people with pricing," he said.
But the real challenge, Sherry said, is keeping health care workers on the job.
"We do recruiting for professional providers like dentists, nurses and pharmacists," he said. "And what we're trying to add to the mix is basically what you might call a 'temp agency' function. So if they've got a person who is going to training, or to conferences or on leave, we can provide help from the people we have here."
Sherry said a lot of the energy at the resource center is focused on improving office administration and budget management skills in rural communities.
"There is kind of a misperception that the Indian Health Service totally funds this thing, which is not true," he said. "IHS funds represent probably half of the resources that are needed out there. These groups have to bill Medicaid, Medicare and they bill people's insurance companies. So having a functional, well-trained business office staff has become more critical to having the revenue flow they need for these services."
Sherry said in some cases, the ANTHC center can offer to contract with smaller community health groups to provide billing and collection services.
Another area the center is getting into, Sherry said, is reviewing the credentials of prospective new health care employees and helping to perform background checks and license verifications.
And there is a training component to the center, with classes and seminars in telemedicine and Internet technology applications, he said.
"We're still growing this thing, and in some ways we are repackaging things we have been doing before with some new service lines," Sherry said.
"We look at this as a customer service for our affiliated native heath agencies around the state."
