Areas of Expertise Customer Profiling | Education | Healthcare Management Housing and Related Research | Real Estate and Relocation Veterans Veterans EconSys has conducted several management and analysis studies for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, including Congressionally mandated evaluation studies of benefit programs, capital investment methodology, compensation for nurses, and financing of health care services for veterans. Benefit Program Evaluations Over the past several years EconSys has performed the technical lead on three major Congressionally mandated evaluation studies (each funded for over $1 million) for the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Policy, Planning and Preparedness. These programs are pension/disability, survivor benefits, and home loan guaranty programs. For these studies The EconSys Team briefed top management at VA as well as presented results and recommendations to Office of Management and Budget, General Accounting Office, Congressional staff, and other stakeholders. Healthcare Financing EconSys conducted a series of studies that examined the performance of VA hospital processes and policies associated with third party revenues that may be generated from professional services rendered during inpatient care. Major themes addressed in these studies included consolidation of revenue collection activities and outsourcing. Study reports provide an assessment of the effectiveness of processes, procedures, systems, and education programs associated with documenting, coding, billing, and collecting reimbursement for inpatient professional services. Capital Investment Methodology EconSys was engaged with the Department of Veterans Affairs Central Office to conduct a study of the capital budgeting process and find best practices in the federal, non-federal public, and private sectors for capital investment decision-making. As a result of this effort, EconSys produced Capital Investments: Survey of Best Practices and VA’s Capital Investment Guide. The Guide facilitates VA compliance with the Government Performance and Results Act, the Clinger/Cohen Act, and OMB’s Capital Programming Guide. EconSys recommended strategic alternatives to the capital investment decision process and recommended a strategy on how to prioritize projects for funding given the overall strategic vision of the VA. ARC Program Evaluation The ARC is a clinically focused health systems information and management group that assists the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) policy and operations management by developing, maintaining, and using decision support patient-specific workload and expenditure databases, reports, and responses to data inquiries. EconSys evaluated ARC’s operations under five major topics: data, methodology, computer systems, documentation, and work processes. Information Systems experts of ARC and the data consumers of ARC were surveyed. Nurse Locality Pay Study The intent of the Locality Pay System (LPS) is to ensure that nurse pay at VA facilities is competitive with those at local non-VA health care facilities. The objective of this study was to identify the significant problems with how LPS is currently working, to understand the reasons behind the problems, and to recommend improvements to the system. Analysis and Redesign of the GDX and FAADS Reporting Systems EconSys led a study to evaluate and identify ways of enhancing the value and efficiency of two interrelated VA expenditure-reporting systems, FAADS and GDX. Analysis was conducted of the effectiveness of inter-organizational coordination and communication; use of best practices for managing and maintaining the integrity, validity, and accuracy of the GDX/FAADS reports and underlying databases; use of best information technology; and efficiency of resource utilization.