The Lancaster Group

Finite Results / Infinite Wisdom

Our Services

Third Party Reimbursement

Business Planning

Systems Implementation and Ongoing Performance

Financial, Operating and Regulatory Due Diligence

Third Party Reimbursement

Our third-party reimbursement services range from cost reporting and cost report audit adjustment appeals to the preparation of Medicare and various state Medicaid Cost Reports.

COST REPORTING

The Lancaster Group LLC utilizes the cost reporting process to enhance reimbursement—such as Medicare bad debts and Medicaid capital where applicable—and to identify opportunities for operational improvement through benchmarking.

MEDICARE & MEDICAID COST REPORTS

The Lancaster Group, LLC assists clients in appealing Medicare and Medicaid Cost Report audit adjustments made to cost reports prepared by the clients or by external advisors. We collaborate with client representatives and legal counsel to analyze the financial impact of these adjustments, evaluate how Medicare adjustments affect Medicaid, develop negotiation strategies, assess the future financial and compliance impact of settlement terms, and provide expert witness testimony.

Business Planning

Our business planning services range from contract analysis and negotiation to budgeting and financial planning.

CONTRACT ANALYSIS & NEGOTIATION

The Lancaster Group, LLC assists clients in analyzing and negotiating vendor and third-party payer contracts. We identify alternative vendors, evaluate rates and outcomes, and help secure better cost and production standards. For third-party payer agreements, we develop favorable rate structures and ancillary carve-outs and support negotiations of contract terms

BUDGETING

The Lancaster Group, LLC helps clients with budgeting by developing revenue and expense assumptions based on our third-party reimbursement experience. We assist in creating budgets for ongoing operations, new developments, acquisitions, or programs, and evaluate internally-prepared budget assumptions or assist in developing financial projections.

Systems Implementation and Ongoing Performance

Packages

Our clients benefit from our knowledge of software systems or “packages”, both healthcare-specific and general.

Software Systems

The Lancaster Group, LLC assists its clients by identifying ways in which software systems (e.g., general ledger and accounts receivable packages) can be more effectively utilized. Healthcare providers typically upgrade or change software systems approximately every five years. Although funds are expended on necessary hardware upgrades and the software itself, oftentimes training is an afterthought. The challenges of employee turnover and increasing complex regulations make use of software more critical, but more difficult to understand. Our clients benefit from our approach when we “stay involved” to ensure effective, ongoing use of the software packages.

Enhance Business Processes

The Lancaster Group, LLC assists its clients by identifying ways in which spreadsheet and word processing software can enhance business processes. Healthcare providers generally perform a number of repetitive tasks or “business processes” in a variety of manual and automated ways. Multi-site providers often are not consistent from site to site in the manner in which the processes are performed. Our clients benefit from our industry experience when we bring efficiency-enhancing ideas on the way in which processes can be automated and made more consistent through the effective use of spreadsheet and word processing software.

Financial, Operating and Regulatory Due Diligence

Our clients benefit from our knowledge of the long-term care and senior housing industries when contemplating an acquisition or divestiture.

The Lancaster Group, LLC assists its clients in performing due diligence on acquisition candidates. Our buyer and lender clients use our expertise in areas such as third-party reimbursement (past, current, and future), volume and rate analysis, expense assumptions, liability assessments, regulatory compliance, vendor and third-party payer contracts, and staffing analysis for single-site and multi-site acquisitions.

The Lancaster Group, LLC assists its clients in performing divestiture analysis. We commonly assist clients considering a strategic divestiture by identifying and screening acquisition candidates and negotiating sales agreements.

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