3.2 Revenue Improvement Program

Centralized Credentialing Verification Pilot Project (CCV) -- RFP Now Open!

The CCV Pilot Project is intended to improve access to care, reduce administrative burden, accelerate provider onboarding, and create a sustainable statewide framework for centralized credentialing and primary source verification services for healthcare practitioners practicing in Kansas.

Objectives:

• Establish the governance, operational framework, and stakeholder engagement necessary to support a statewide centralized credentialing model.
• Conduct a Request for Proposal and identify and procure a Primary Source Verification (PSV) vendor and supporting technology infrastructure.
• Design and implement standardized credentialing workflows and policies.
• Reduce credentialing timeframes and administrative duplication.
• Improve provider onboarding and access to care, particularly in rural Kansas.
• Develop a scalable and sustainable statewide credentialing infrastructure.

Request for Proposal due Aug. 4

For more information on this project, contact Shannan Flach at sflach@kha-net.org | Opens Email.

Revenue Technical Support Organization (RTSO)

The RTSO is intended to improve the financial sustainability of Kansas rural hospitals by providing centralized revenue cycle expertise, payer analytics, claims recovery services, legal and reimbursement support, and CFO mentoring designed to reduce claim denials, accelerate payment resolution, strengthen rural hospital leadership capacity, and improve payer accountability.

Objectives:

• Providing centralized expertise related to medical coding, billing, reimbursement methodologies, revenue cycle operations, managed care contracting, compliance, and payment integrity.
• Developing standardized guidance, educational materials, templates, and best practices to support compliant reimbursement optimization.
• Providing education and technical assistance related to emerging revenue cycle challenges and reimbursement opportunities.
• Regulatory Monitoring, Payer Policy Analysis, and Operational Improvement
• Analyzing denied, delayed, and underpaid claims to identify recovery opportunities.
• Assisting hospitals with appeals, reconsiderations, payer disputes, audit responses, and reimbursement recovery efforts.
• Working with physician advisors, utilization management, case management, health information management, and revenue cycle teams to identify barriers to payment.

For more information on this project, contact Shannan Flach at sflach@kha-net.org | Opens Email.

Workforce Projects

Project 3.1.3 – Medical Student Rural Rotation Housing Assistance

Objectives:

• Increase rural medical student rotations by reducing one of the most significant barriers students face: safe, affordable and practical short-term housing during rural rotations.
• Provide financial assistance to rural hospitals, clinics and other rural facilities/providers to support housing for medical students on rural rotations.
• Assistance will support community-specific needs

For more information on this project, contact Jaron Caffrey at jcaffrey@kha-net.org | Opens Email.

Project 3.3.1 – Rural Nurse Residency Program

Objectives:

• Support new nurse graduates practice with additional professional development, quality and evidence integration and a professional practice project
• Establish a statewide Rural Nurse Residency Program using an evidence-based curriculum to provide standardized, accredited training and mentorship for recent nursing school graduates transitioning into practicing in rural facilities.
  
• 12-month transition-to-practice program for newly graduated nurses
• Cohort-based learning and mentorship
• Designed to improve retention and patient outcomes
• Program builds upon existing orientation and onboarding
• Empowers nurses and increases retention while reducing turnover costs and improving patient safety

For more information on this project, contact Terry Siek at tsiek@kha-net.org | Opens Email.

Project 3.3.2 – Rural Clinical Instructor and Preceptor Program

Objectives:

• Increase the number of clinical sites available to support the enrollment and training of nursing students in rural areas.
• Provide assistance to rural health care employers to provide qualified nurses to serve as adjunct clinical instructors for area nursing programs
• Provide assistance to rural hospitals for making staff available to serve as preceptors for clinical rotations for select health care training programs.
• Helps health care facilities serve as a clinical sites for nursing students, including smaller groups of nursing students not typically used today
• Financial support to expand clinical training capacity for nursing programs
• Build long-term workforce pipeline and strengthen partnerships with nursing programs

For more information on this project, contact Terry Siek at tsiek@kha-net.org | Opens Email.

3.3.4 - Behavioral Health Apprenticeships

Objectives:

• Expand list of positions available in Kansas for apprenticeships to include behavioral health positions. Once positions have been registered, existing state and federal programs can be leveraged to apprenticeship programs.
• Identify most appropriate positions to register as apprenticeships
• With the assistance of an intermediary, formally register these positions
• Promote the benefits and assistance available to behavioral health organizations wishing to start apprenticeship programs
• Assist employer with growing their own talent

For more information on this project, contact Jennifer Findley at jfindley@kha-net.org | Opens Email.

Project 3.4.2 – K-12 Health Science Career Technical Education

Objectives:

• Launch new Health Science Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways in rural high schools and expand existing pathways to include additional courses and certifications (e.g., patient care technician, phlebotomy, CNA, EMT).
• Assistance available to purchase necessary equipment for courses to train students or to train teachers
• Enable more high school students to obtain real-world experiences in health care and graduate with credentials to enter the workforce or matriculate to the next level
• Creates local, homegrown talent pipelines into your organization
• Partner with local schools to grow future workforce

For more information on this project, contact Jaron Caffrey at jcaffrey@kha-net.org | Opens Email.

Project 3.4.4 – Regional Career Expo

Objectives:

• Provide more hands-on experiences to students by sponsoring three regional, hands-on career expos in rural areas.
• Provide support to health care career exploration events in rural areas.

For more information on this project, contact Jennifer Findley at jfindley@kha-net.org | Opens Email.

Job Opportunities

The University of Kansas Health System Care Collaborative has the following positions related to RHTP projects open for application.

Care Collaborative Hays Health Coach

Care Collaborative Hays Telehealth Outreach Coordinator

Care Collaborative Hays Nurse Navigator