ABOUT US

The Institute for Quality Resource Management is a consulting company providing solutions, services and products for the Healthcare Industry.

Our vision at the Institute for Quality Resource Management is to bring quality, outcome oriented health care to patients needing access to medical care. To that end we are assisting companies that develop and produce products for the Heath Care Industry and the Medical Organizations that use service and products that enhance the quality of life for the patients.

The Institute offers consultation services, professional workshops,
new product introductions, and software products designed
to help better utilize information, for decision making, for
reporting, for reimbursement, and new product development.

For healthcare providers drawn into the endless accounting
quagmire of complex tracking and coding required for every
treatment, every outcome, every cost, and every payer we provide
products, seminars and workshops that enhance tracking patient
outcomes, maximize reimbursements, and the revenue generating
opportunities of outpatient departments, free standing clinics, and
alternative care sites.

Healthcare providers and producers need help staying informed.
They need tools for effectively managing an controlling product
quality and cost of care...and easy, useful access to these tools
is a critical concern fro both today and tomorrow.

LEAH AMIR BIOGRAPHY

Over the past 11 years Leah Amir has developed positive relationships with HCFA and many third party payers that have facilitated positive reimbursement solutions for healthcare providers. As we face a new decade, the Institute for Quality Resource Management is pooling their talents to bring their expertise to assist healthcare providers:

1. Adapt Current Coding to Comply with APC Changes
2. Establish Quality Improvement Programs to Secure Revenue
3. Establish Billing Compliance Programs
4. Identify Opportunities to Streamline Costs
5. Assist with Information System Changes to Meet the Year 2001 Challenges
6. Develop Cost and Outcome Models to Achieve Reimbursement for New Medical Procedures
7. Provide Motivational and Team Training Programs

Equipped with a Master of Science and Master of Health Administration (Washington University School of Medicine), coupled with 11 years of working with health care providers and clarifying payment policy for new procedures, establishes her skills to provide cost saving solutions. Past successes include coding improvement, charge master analysis, process analysis and re-design, and CQI team building to enhance the effectiveness of each member of the patient care team. Relationships developed over the years with third party payers, (including HCFA policy makers) provided her the unique opportunity to help payers understand procedures that are appropriate to be reimbursed and as well share with providers the payers' perspective.

In addition to obtaining reimbursement for new procedures, she developed pricing strategies designed to maintain margins while attracting managed care contracts. Due to her success she has been frequently requested to provide presentations on: Profitability Analysis, Disease Management, Outcomes Analysis, Marketing Medical Devices, Incorporating Cost Effectiveness Analysis into Phase III Clinical Trials, and Methods to Maximize Revenue from Third Party Payers. As the Manager of Health Economics with Mallinckrodt she developed a department that provided consulting services to United States hospitals and clinics. Services offered included: Development of cost accounting systems, medical documentation processes and re-engineering of work flow processes revolving around patient satisfaction including outcome measurement, and pricing to maximize managed care contracts.

Experience gained during her 7 year tenure with Mallinckrodt, underscored by eight years of teaching physiology and microbiology at the university level, coupled with 8 years of clinical research, frequent consulting with medical professionals, and achieving successful reimbursement for key medical products validates her ability to provide in-depth expertise able to bring about revenue enhancement strategies that are in compliance with HCFA regulations. As an active member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Healthcare Financial Management Association, and Association for Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research she remains well informed of legislative changes and methods of cost effectiveness analysis.

Leah resides in St. Louis, Missouri with her family of 7. Recreational time includes sports with the children, snow skiing, water skiing, fishing, and gardening.

PUBLICATIONS

Mark A. Schnitzler Ph. D.1,2, Robert S. Woodward Ph. D.1,2, Jeffrey A. Lowell M. D.1,3, Leah Amir M.S., M.H.A.4, Daniel C. Brennan M. D.1,5, The Relative Cost-Effectiveness of Thymoglobulin and ATGAM for Treatment of Acute Renal Transplant Rejection (submitted to : Transplant 1998).

Pharmaco-economic Transplant Research1, The Health Administration Program2, and Departments of Surgery3 and Internal Medicine5, at the Washington University School of Medicine, and Institute for Quality Resource Management 4 St. Louis, Missouri 63110

Robert S. Woodward,1 Leah Amir,2 and Mark A. Schnitzler1 A New Product Pricing Model Using Intra-Corporate Market Perceptions to Extract the Value of Additional Information (appear in PharmacoEconomics 1998).

Pharmacoeconomic Transplant Research Group and Graduate Health Administration Program, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (1) Institute for Quality Resource Management, St. Louis, MO. (2)

Leah Amir, Budgeting For New Technology. Gateway Gatherings a publication of the Healthcare Financial Management Association. December issue, 1997.

Leah Amir, Reimbursement for Immunodiagnosis of Neuroendocrine Tumors. New Perspectives in Cancer Diagnosis and Management. Vol.3 No 2, Sept. 1995.

Healthcare Reimbursement and Radiology: Strategies for Success, 1991. Publication for Mallinckrodt Medical teamed authored by Leah Amir, William A. Peck, MD, J. Michael Eisner, JD, Neil R. Powe, MD, MPH, MBA, Richard L. Clarke, FHFMA, Matthew J. Kuhn, MD, Lynn Hardie von Kaenel, CPA, David P. Seifert, CPA, FHFMA, Arthur C. Waltman, MD.

Radiology Today. Monthly articles regarding provider based reimbursement for cardiology and radiology departments and procedures. 1993-1995.

Reimbursement Survival Guide. First edition. 1991. Updated annually to address all changes in reimbursement. Used by Mallinckrodt sales force and their customers.1997 edition provided in print as well as over the Internet.

New Product Technology Development Reengineering Process. Created a process to gather economic and outcome information during phase III clinical trials. Referred to as the New Product Team Development process now used by Mallinckrodt to move all products through the conceptual to market stages of development.

PRESENTATIONS

APC Implementation Strategies. March 2001

Strategies to Succeed With APC. June 2000.

Coding Workshops for Physicians. Since January 1998.

Marketing Your Medical Devices Feb 3-4, 1997

Managing Successful Business Alliances. Approximately 40 of healthcare and Insurance company attendees.

Medical Device Executive Forum Feb. 9-10, 1997

Presented: The New Health Care Market Place: Navigating the Sea of Change and Charting a Course for Success. Selling Medical Products in a Managed Care Environment: Meeting the New Needs of the New Marketplace.

Canadian Initiatives in Disease Management March 3-4, 1997

Developing and Implementing a Disease Management System. Over 200 attendees present to review strategies to manage the cuts in healthcare budgets in Canada.

Managing for Profitability: Society of Cardiovascular Interventional Radiology meeting in D.C. on March 9, 1997. Presenting to members of the Association of Interventional Radiographers. Two hundred hospital- based attendees.

Cost Effectiveness Model for Routine Use of Hexabrix during PTCA procedures. 1996.

Presented at the annual Diagnostic Imaging meeting in San Francisco, April 1996.

Third Annual Disease Management Congress: New Strategies for Providing Outcomes-Based Care November 21-22, 1996: Techniques for Gathering Data to Support Disease Management Guidelines. Approximately 60 healthcare management attendees.

Chairperson Managed Care Committee: HIMA. 1995-1997. Planned technology assessment seminars. Headed the creation of the Managed Care Information website for HIMA members (currently called ADVAMED).

THIRD PARTY PAYER SUCCESS

Cost effectiveness, outcomes assessment for a new surgical sealant polymer. 2000

Cost effectiveness, outcomes assessment and reimbursement planning for a therapeutic agent for transplant patients. 1997.

Assessed the reimbursement of a radioablation product for liver tumors. 1997

Worked with AMA to create a new CPT code to accommodate new PAP screening methodology on behalf of AutoCyte, Inc. 1997

Stent graft cost effectiveness and outcomes modeling: Mallinckrodt Medical, Inc. 1995-1996

RadioCath product: cost effectiveness and outcomes modeling: Mallinckrodt Medical, Inc. 1995-1997.

Fallopian tube patency device: created model to present to payers to obtain reimbursement: Mallinckrodt Medical, Inc/Conceptus, Inc. 1996-1997.

Optiray and Hexabrix - low osmolar contrast media: Mallinckrodt Medical, Inc. Worked with HCFA to obtain nationwide reimbursement and subsequently increased the ICD-9 codes considered allowable by Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield. 1992-1997

Octreoscan a radiolabeled immunoglobulin: Mallinckrodt Medical, Inc. Obtained nationwide reimbursement within 9 months post launch, cost $800 per dose to diagnose patients with neuroendocrine disease. 1994

Albunex ultrasound echocardiography agent: Mallinckrodt Medical, Inc. Obtained nationwide reimbursement over 2 years post launch using minimal clinical data. 1995-1997

Gastromark MR contrast agent: Mallinckrodt Medical, Inc. Developed method to obtain Medicare reimbursement for an MR contrast agent. 1996-1997

Vascular devices: Mallinckrodt Medical, Inc. created reimbursement methods to meet the devices particular need.