CREATIVE COMPUTER APPLICATIONS INC. (AMEX:CAP - CAP.EC news),
1.9 mil float, 1.24 book, current ratio good, 3 mil backlog, a play like LANV was Friday. Totally untouched...
CCA is a provider of Clinical Information Systems for hospital, and clinic based laboratories, pharmacies and radiology departments announced today that it has released its new CCA Web Server™ application and installed it in three client locations.
This is the KEY>>MEDICAL NECESSITY VALIDATION
What is it?
Recently, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) and the OIG (Office of the Inspector General) have begun ensuring the tests that are ordered on a patient are "medically necessary".
In the "Model Compliance Plan for Clinical Laboratories", Medical Necessity is described as follows:
"Laboratory compliance plans should ensure that claims are only submitted to federally funded health care programs for services that the laboratory has reason to believe are medically necessary. Upon request, a laboratory should be able to provide documentation, such as requisition forms containing diagnosis codes, supporting the medical necessity of a service the laboratory has provided and billed to a Federal program. We recognize that laboratories do not and cannot treat patients or make medical necessity determinations. However, there are steps that such facilities can and should take to help maximize the likelihood that they only bill federally funded health care programs for tests that meet the reimbursement rules for those programs."
In addition, the previous "automated chemistry bundling" for Medicare has been replaced. NO longer may a physician order a Chem 20, or Chem 18. Instead they may order on of the four allowable panels (as defined by Medicare), and/or order each test individually. The though behind this is to ensure that all tests ordered are medically necessary.
What is the reason/purpose of Medical Necessity Validation?
Balanced Budget Act. In other words, the government decided (as part of the Balanced Budget Act) that if they could prevent unnecessary tests from being ordered on patients which are participants of the federally funded health care programs, the less money would be spent on healthcare. Validation for the laboratory may prevent the laboratory from submitting fraudulent claims (where a valid diagnosis was not given for a medical necessity test). In addition, the physician should curb the desire to order a group of tests when not all tests may be necessary.
The CCA Web Server™ provides secure access to CCA's CyberLAB II® laboratory information system via any standard web browser. Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare personnel are permitted secure access to patient data over the Internet from virtually anywhere in the world. The Company developed this product to address overwhelming demand from its clients for a low cost, universal communications link into its clinical information systems. By employing the power of the World Wide Web, clinicians now have faster, easier access to critical patient information which will lead to improved patient care.
The Company plans to release enhancements to this product in the near future that will expand its use to its other clinical information systems. The CCA Web Server™ is the first product in a family of web based applications the Company plans on releasing.
The company's total backlog was approximately $3 million at Nov. 30, 1998. The company is experiencing an increase in new orders for its Clinical Information Systems products and is also receiving a significant amount of upgrade orders from its client base relating to Year 2000 issues. The company recently began to market a new graphical version of its CyberRAD® Radiology Information System that incorporates its MQA Mammography tracking and reporting system, voice-activated technology and built-in connectivity to PACS systems. The company recently contracted with a multisite diagnostic-imaging center to provide this product.
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