Healthcare Almanac

Company History and Vision

Healthcare Almanac is business intelligence product developed by Intech Computer Systems, Inc.  Intech Computer Systems was incorporated in 1986 by Robert Neal, CPA.  Intech Computer Systems is a software development business dedicated to developing software in the Healthcare Industry.

In 1996, Robert Neal, CPA updated Winstat Analyst from a DOS system to a Microsoft Windows system.  Over the next five years, the software was extended to a number of states and many features were added to improve the use of the software.  The product's main focus is the analysis of UB-92 data at the DRG and ICD-9 level.  Many hospitals have used this information to analyze trends in their operation and improve their marketing and business practices.   In 2005, the software is installed in 110 hospitals,  HMOs  and medical device manufactures.

In 2001, Robert Neal, CPA began project to use the "internet" to locate sources of publicly available information.  The goal was to find business information that could be used by the healthcare industry to improve healthcare marketing, public relations, contracting, capacity planning and strategic planning.  There is a large amount of information available from the government but the information is in many formats. One large source of information is the Medicare Cost Reports.  Another large source is the Census Bureau with the census information. There are many sources of additional information that can enhance the healthcare cost information and population information.  Over the next several years, this project continued with the goal of developing a software product resulting in better utilization of healthcare information and development of a healthcare industry strategic plans.  The most important area was to find information for accurate forecasting of population and healthcare utilization.

In mid 2002, a test project was started to develop Healthcare Almanac in a programming language called Visual Foxpro.  This project failed, as expected, due to the limitations of Visual Foxpro.  Microsoft had just released Visual Studio .Net 2002/2003.  This development environment was the result of 4 years of development by Microsoft.  In my opinion, Visual Studio .Net is the best software development environment to date but is difficult to learn and use.  The next year of available time was spent learning Visual Studio .Net and SQL Server 2000. 

In early 2004,  the overall business design of Healthcare Almanac was started and completed by the end of the year.  This design was the definition of the Almanacs.  Information was organized into Provider Almanac, Population Almanac, Reference Almanac and Healthcare Almanac.  The Provider Almanac provides the definition of the healthcare industry.  The Population Almanac provides the census or definition of healthcare patients.  The Patient Almanac provides the use rates for inpatient and outpatinet healthcare.  The Reference Almanac provides additional information for DRGs, medical terminology and summary information.  The final almanac is Healthcare Almanac.  This almanac uses the information from the three almanacs to create a forecast of population, use rates, billing rates and projected financial statements. 

In mid 2005, the software development of Provider Almanac was started.  The progress of the project has been slow due to the complexity of Visual Studio 2003.  In November 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 were released by Microsoft Corporation.  All development activity was switched to the new software.  By June, 2006, parts of Provider Almanac was completed and the product was released at the HFMA ANI conference in Orlando, FL.  During 2007, new data and features were added to Provider Almanac.  The main feature was installation over the internet and access to data over the internet.          

The combination of Provider, Population and Reference Almanac will form the basis of Healthcare Almanac.  This almanac is designed to provide tools to show the effects of changes to your service area, changes in billing rates and the impact of changes in medical care practices.  The almanac will allow for multiple plans to forecast population, billing rates, use rates and cost to charge ratios. 

We believe this software and databases will provide value to the healthcare professionals that are planning the future of healthcare.