B.I.G. Consultants

Steven S. Lazarus, PhD, CPEHR, CPHIT, FHIMSS
B.I.G. President and Project Manager

Dr. Lazarus is President and Founder of the Boundary Information Group (BIG), a consortium of independent health care information systems consulting firms. He has more than 30 years of experience specializing in health care, information systems, and productivity improvement. He is a member of the WEDI Board of Directors, WEDI Board Chair (2001-2002), and has served on several Committee and TAG leadership positions. He serves on the Steering Committees of the HIPAA Security Summit and the Strategic National Implementation Plan (SNIP). In 2000, he initiated the Colorado SNIP initiative. Dr. Lazarus has been an active member in HIMSS since 1975. He is a HIMSS Fellow and founder of the Colorado HIMSS Chapter. Dr. Lazarus is a member of MGMA and its Information Management Society. He received his PhD in Business Administration from the University of Rochester. From 1990 to 1994, Dr. Lazarus was an Executive with the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) where he was responsible for the Association's financial surveys, group practice management research, and information systems.

He has conducted several HIPAA readiness assessment and planning projects including project plan development, product capability assessment, and contract review for HIPAA. He has advised several clients on their Security Business Impact Analysis utilizing the EarlyView tool produced by NCHICA. HIPAA clients include health plans, providers, and vendors.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Lazarus has been providing consulting services to payers, medical groups, physician offices, and hospitals on information systems planning, selection, implementation, and operational issues. Many of the engagements involve complex business arrangements (e.g., MSO startup, integrated health care delivery systems encompassing hospitals and physician offices, etc.) which require his industry knowledge and expertise in workflow and business processes in order to design a system strategy consistent with the business objectives of the enterprise.

Dr. Lazarus has been an information systems consultant to the Arizona, Colorado, and Montana State Medicaid programs. He developed the strategic plan, project plan, and budget for the first Colorado MMIS, which included HMO program management.

Under contract with Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) - Medicare, Dr. Lazarus designed and implemented a study to evaluate and identify processes that could improve the quality of claims data submitted by tape from hospitals to Medicare intermediaries. The findings of the study provided the operational requirements for Medicare to increase the utilization of electronic claims data submission from hospitals to intermediaries throughout the country. Seventy-Nine hospitals and fourteen fiscal intermediaries participated in this study.

Dr. Lazarus was a pioneer in health care electronic commerce from small physician offices. He was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for a physician billing system vendor that transmitted claims electronically from physician offices to payers by PC diskette and modem in 1984-1985.

Dr. Lazarus has been the lead consultant for three provider organization initiatives to implement enterprise-wide clinical information systems. The project scope for these clients included strategic planning, system selection, and implementation project management.

HIPAA Specific Experience

Dr. Lazarus has served on the following leadership capacities that have contributed significantly to the standards development implemented under HIPAA:

• Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) Board of Directors representing MGMA (1993-1995).
• Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) Assistant Secretary (1995-1996)
• Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) Board of Directors (1997-2001)
• Member of the WEDI Executive Committee, 1995-1996, 1999-present
  
• WEDI Board Chair-Elect (2000), Board Chair (2001-2002)
• WEDI HIPAA Security Summit Steering Committee (1999-present)
• WEDI Strategic National Implementation Plan (SNIP) Steering Committee (2000-present) · Participant in the Privacy and Patient Confidentiality WEDI Policy Advisory Group. · Participant in the National Provider Identifier (NPI) WEDI Policy Advisory Group.
• Participant in the WEDI Security and Electronic Signature Policy Advisory Group
• Participant in the WEDI Financial Analysis Technical Advisory Group
• Former WEDI Committee Chair for the following committees:
  • Uniform Data Content/Standards Implementation Committee
  • Nominating/Search Committee
  • National Conference Program Committee
  • Education Committee
  • WEDI Organization Committee for Transition to an Association Structure.
• Staff Liaison for the MGMA Uniform Billing Information Committee
• Work Group on Computerization of Patient Records (1993) · Presenter of "Employer HIPAA Compliance Strategies", HIPAA Summit Audio Conference, June 12, 2002.
• Presenter of "HIPAA Transactions Preparedness: Reaping the Benefits and Avoiding the Risks" with Margret Amatayakul, HCPro, Inc. Audio Conference, May 29, 2002
• Presenter of "Case Studies: A Survey of Ten Health Systems' HIPAA Compliance Efforts", The Fourth National HIPAA Summit", April 24,-26, 2002.
• Presenter of "ASCA Transaction Extension Impacts on Payers, TPAs , and Medicare Contractors, and WEDI Resources to Help", HIPAA Symposium - Health Insurance Association of America, April 2-3, 2002.
• Presenter of "Case Studies: A Survey of Ten Health System's HIPAA Compliance Forts", HIPAA Summit West II, March 13-25, 2002.
• Presenter of "A Survey of Ten Health Systems' HIPAA Compliance Strategies", (with Margret Amataykul), Fifth Annual National Congress on Health Care Compliance, February 6-8, 2002
• Presenter of "HIPAA Readiness Assessment Hospital Benchmarks, A Case Study Based on Experience with 10 Hospitals" (with Margret Amatayakul), 2002 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition, January 27-31, 2002.
• Presenter of "Case Studies to a Successful HIPAA Implementation: Achieving Success with WEDI SNIP", (with William R. Braithwaite, MD, PhD, FACMI, Robert Tennant and Larry Watkins), 2002 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition., January 27-31, 2002.
• Presenter of "National Perspective: Update on HIPAA Regulations: What's Next? The Extension, Collaboration", HARK Conference, Topeka, KS, January 14, 2002.
• Presenter of "HIPAA Remediation: Using the Results of a Gap Analysis to Modify Systems", The Sixth Annual Congress on Medicaid & Medicare, Washington, DC, January 7-9, 2002.
• Presenter of "HIPAA Coordination and Financing", NAHDO 16th Annual Meeting - Health Data Initiatives 2002, Washington, DC, December 3-4, 2001.
• Presenter of "Four steps to HIPAA Success: Improved Cash Flow and Increased Patient Satisfaction", WEDI SNIP HIPAA Implementation Summit: Working Toward Solutions, Orlando, FL, November 12-14, 2001.
• Presenter of "Getting Acquainted with HIPAA", with Roger May, WEDI SNIP HIPAA Implementation Summit, Orlando, FL, November 12, 2001
• Presenter of "Projecting and Budgeting Costs and Savings of HIPAA Compliance", The Harvard Conference on Critical Issues in American Healthcare", Boston, MA, October 29, 2001
• Presenter of "HIPAA Case Studies: A Survey of 10 Health Systems' HIPAA Compliance Efforts", The Third National HIPAA Summit, Washington, DC, October 26, 2001
• Presenter of "National Perspective: Update on HIPAA Regulations: What's Next?", Second Annual New Mexico HIPAA Conference", Albuquerque, NM October 22, 2001
• Presenter of "Projecting and Budgeting Costs and Savings of HIPAA Compliance", Healthcare Transactions and Code Sets, Privacy, Data Security and HIPAA/GLB Compliance Conference, Boston, MA, August 22, 2001
• Presenter of "Getting Ready for HIPAA", American Academy of Dermatology Academy 2001, Anaheim, CA, July 31, 2001
• Presenter of "HIPAA Headaches: How to Avoid Them and Save Money in the Process", Los Angeles County Medical Association Town Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, July 31, 2001
• Presenter of "HIPAA Implementation: Projecting and Budgeting Institutional Costs of HIPAA Compliance", The HIPAA Summit West, San Francisco, CA, June 21, 2001
• Presenter of "Identifying and Achieving the Benefits of HIPAA", Healthcare Association of Southern California 78th Annual Meeting, La Quinta, CA, June 1, 2001
• Presenter at Southern California Association for Healthcare Risk Management 2001 Annual Conference, Rancho Mirage, CA, May 10, 2001
• Presenter of "Keys to Successful HIPAA Implementation" 2001 WEDI National Conference, La Jolla, California, April 18, 2001
• Presenter of "HIPAA, It's on its way: Are you Ready?", e-IPAs & Physician Organizations 6th Annual National Meeting, March 29, 2001.
• Presenter of "Achieving the Benefits of HIPAA Compliance: Strategies and Case Studies", The Second National HIPAA Summit, Washington, DC, March 2, 2001
• Presenter of "Organizing to Respond to HIPAA and Realize the Benefits", 2001 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition, February 4, 2001.
• Presenter of "Get Ready for HIPAA: What to Expect, Why you Should Act Now, How to Benefit From HIPAA", Program Beta, January 28-31, 2001
• Presenter of "Organizing to Respond to HIPAA and Realize the Benefits", Third Annual HFMA Region 11 Symposium, January 15, 2001
• Presenter of "Get Ready for HIPAA: What to Expect, Why you Should Act Now, How to Benefit From HIPAA", Child Health Corporation of America Audio Conference, December 7, 2000.
• Presenter of "Get Ready for HIPAA: What to Expect, Why You Should Act Now, How to Benefit from HIPAA", SCPIE, Los Angeles, CA, November 14, 2000.
• Presenter of "Organizing to Respond to HIPAA and Realize the Benefits", The First National HIPAA Summit, Washington, DC, October 17, 2000
• Presenter of "Four Steps to HIPAA Success: Improved Cash Flow and Increased Patient Satisfaction", with Margret Amatayakul, Medical Group Management Association 73rd Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA, October 16, 2000.
• Presenter of "Get Ready for HIPAA: What to Expect, Why you Should Act Now, How to Benefit from HIPAA" National Audio Conference, Medical Group Management Association, July 27, 2000.
• Presenter of "Organizing to Respond to HIPAA and Realize the Benefits", The Symposium on E-Healthcare Strategies for Physicians, Hospitals & Integrated Delivery Systems", San Francisco, CA, June 28, 2000.
• Presenter of "HIPAA Challenges", Southern California Association for Healthcare Risk Management 2000 Annual Conference, Rancho Mirage, CA, May 10, 2000. · Author of, "10 HIPAA tips for the Physician Office, Journal of AHIMA, February 2001.
• Author with Margret Amatayakul, "The HIPAA and E-Health Trains Have Left the Station: Are you Aboard?", Group Practice Journal, January 2000.
• Author of "Administrative Simplification or Bureaucratic Nightmare? HIPAA Regulations to Define Electronic Data Storage and Transactions", MGM Journal, November/December 1998.

The work product developed through the WEDI Standards Implementation and Uniform Data Content Subcommittee, which he co-chaired, resulted in the development of implementation guides for the ANSI standards. These implementation guides, which both instruct users on how to implement the standards, as well as specify the data set definitions within the standard formats, are specifically recognized in the HIPAA regulations as the methodology to be used to implement the HIPAA standard transactions.

Dr. Lazarus has conducted several educational workshops for clients preparing for HIPAA, including identifying specific issues that should be addressed in an enterprise information system implementation.

In his role as various WEDI Committee Chairs, Dr. Lazarus has been recognized for his leadership to be able to build consensus among vendors, payers, providers, consumers, government agencies, and standards organizations. This recognized leadership and consensus building expertise was the reason why he was specifically chosen to Chair the Committee to reorganize WEDI to an association structure at a crucial time in the organization's evolution, and currently serves as WEDI Board Chair.