Company History and Vision

Healthcare Almanac is business intelligence product developed by Robert Neal, CPA.  The business entity for Robert Neal, CPA is Intech Computer Systems, Inc.  that was incorporated in 1986.  Intech Computer Systems is a software development business with a small group of software products.

In 1996, Robert Neal, CPA updated a product initially developed by Jim Puglise named Winstat Analyst.  Winstat Analyst performed hospital discharge analyst of UB92 for Florida hospitals.  The product's main focus was the analysis of UB-92 data at the DRG and ICD-9 level.  Over the next five years, the software was extended to a number of states and many features were added to improve the usability of the software.  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 and difficult to use. 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.  Visual Foxpro had a number of limitations related to file size limitations.  Microsoft had just released Visual Studio .Net 2002/2003.  This development environment was the result of 6 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.  Microsoft released VS2005 and VS2008 with numerous improvements and today, the .Net programming languages are the best development environment ever developed. 

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, Patient 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 four 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.

In 2007, version 2007A and B were released with new data and features were added to Provider Almanac.  The main feature was installation over the internet and access to data over the internet.          

In 2008, version 2008A and B were released with 4 new reports for MEDPAR data and the new Cost Reports Comparative report with 5 years of comparison.  The Patient Almanac and Reference Almanac features were redesigned into Provider Almanac and Population Almanac. 

In 2009, version 2009A and B will be released.  Version 2009A will have the new Summary Reports with Provider Profiles, KPIs and Provider Compare report with 5 years of history.  Population Almanac will be available in a limited feature edition by the end of the year.  This will complete the information required for Healthcare Almanac.  If you have read this far, thank you for your interest.  If you have any questions or comments, please email or call.  We always answer the phone and look forward to talking with you.

---