About

The SHIP program—Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program—is a federal grant program of the Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA), and is administered in Wisconsin by the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health. All Critical Access Hospitals and small rural hospitals with fewer than fifty beds are eligible for the program. 

What Can SHIP Funds Be Used For? 

There are two ways to take part in the SHIP program. 
 

Option 1) A SHIP-Eligible Project

Under this option, you choose a project to purchase from a menu of eligible services.



What kinds of projects can SHIP fund? 

SHIP projects can fund three main categories: value-based purchasing, Accountable Care Organization, and Payment Bundling/PPS. Federal guidelines state that hospitals that receive SHIP funds must use those funds to purchase training or hardware and software for the following valid areas: 

• Quality Reporting data collection—like payment for a core measures vendor, 
• HCAHPS vendor fees,
• Billing coding systems, 
• Equipment for pharmacy and telemedicine purchases,
• Training registrations.

The following are not eligible: 

• Equipment outside of pharmacy and telemedicine purchases,
• Staff time and fringe, including time spent at trainings, 
• Travel costs,
• Food and beverages.

If you choose this option, your hospital is required to comply with University of Wisconsin-Madison Purchasing rules. 
 

Option 2) Dashboard Project

Under this option, you participate in our Dashboard Project, administered in collaboration with the Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center (WHAIC).

What is the Dashboard? 

The dashboard tool provides financial, quality, and other data/information for rural hospitals. The web-based tool is completely interactive, so you can customize it to meet your needs. The tool supports the comparison of rural hospital(s) to each other and/or to a rural cohort. 

What does the Dashboard let me do? 

• Examine hospital and Ambulatory Surgery Center resources and services
• Analyze patient populations 
• Identify patterns, relationships, anomalies, and trends in services, patient populations and other factors
• Evaluate charges and utilization for a specific service, hospital, ASV or market segment
• Explore market opportunities and patterns for key services
• Study payer mix impacts on charges, services and patient populations
• Analyze quality metrics and financial data 

What are the current dashboards? 

• Hospital summary 
• Top visit categories 
• Market share
• Top CPT codes 
• Place of service 
• Financial charts
• Shared patients
• Service lines
• Quality indicators
• ED transfers
• Readmissions
• ED returns 

For more on the Rural Health Dashboard Project, view a brochure from the Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center. 

The Application

The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health lets the hospitals who are eligible for SHIP know how and when to apply. WORH is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health— so they are involved when it comes to contracts, billing and invoicing. 

Applications are submitted electronically. You must complete the online SHIP application, no matter which option you choose. A link to the application will be posted here when it becomes available. 

You will be required to report on the progress of your current SHIP project, so you will need to know who is overseeing your hospital's SHIP grant. Two "signatures" are required, one from the CEO and one from the SHIP Project Director. Electronic, typed signatures are acceptable. 

Deadlines/Timeline

The SHIP grant is from June 1-May 31 every year. SHIP applications typically become become available in December, and are due to our office in January. Exact timing will depend on when the federal office (HRSA) releases the SHIP grant application. 

Hospitals may not spend money before the contract is signed and counter-signed.

Below is a timeline of SHIP deadlines, but the dates are subject to change.  More updates are sent out to our listserv; if you would like to be added to the list that contains important updates, contact Kye Richards. 

May 31.  SHIP grant year ends. Last date a purchase may be made for reimbursement. 

June 1. SHIP grant year begins. 

June. WORH will notify hospitals of the exact amount of funding for the new SHIP year. 

June 15.  Final deadline to submit invoices for reimbursement for the passed SHIP year. 

June/July. UW-Purchasing sends contracts to hospitals. Once completed, hospitals may make purchases and invoice WORH for reimbursement. 

August-May 31.  After the UW-Madison Purchasing contract is signed and countersigned, hospitals may begin to send invoices to WORH for reimbursement as purchases are made. 

December.  Application for the next SHIP year distributed to hospitals. All hospitals that wish to receive SHIP funds must complete an application.
 

Invoicing Instructions

Complete the invoicing template.

Fill out the SHIP invoice template. 

The Purchase Order number and the total SHIP grant award can be found on your Funding Award agreement. Both of those numbers will change each year, so make sure you have your current year agreement.

Attach a copy of the original invoice from your vendor. Don't forget to sign the invoice. 

Send to the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health.

Invoices (and questions about invoices) can be directed to Kye Richards, at (608) 261-1883 or krichards4@wisc.edu. 

Some tips. 

The award dollar amount will always be specific and never matches your invoices—but that's okay. Let's say you have an invoice from Press Ganey for $12,000 for HCAHPs surveys, and the SHIP award is $11,673. No problem. Report the expense date, description and amount on the template, then enter the amount of the SHIP award ($11,673) in the TOTAL DUE box. 

Questions? 

Contact Kye Richards, Program Assistant, at krichards4@wisc.edu or (608) 261-1883. 

Contact Kathryn Miller, Rural Hospitals & Clinics Program Manager, at kmiller9@wisc.edu or (608) 261-1891.

The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health receives grant funding from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) for the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program. The Flex Program, established by Congress in 1997, assisted small hospitals in converting to a Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) designation – decreasing rural hospital closures and improving rural health care access. The Flex Program has evolved over recent years, and now assists CAHs with quality improvement, financial and operational improvement, population health, and integration of Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
 
The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health’s Flex Program has received national recognition for Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP) performance. The Health Resources and Services Administration announced that Wisconsin Critical Access Hospitals have the highest reporting rates and levels of improvement nationally over the past year.

For more, please see this list of Critical Access Hospitals in Wisconsin, a directory of their websites, and a map of Wisconsin's CAHs. 

The federal guidance for the Flex Program requires states to undertake programs and activities that support Quality Improvement (QI) activities of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). The Wisconsin Flex Program assists CAHs with various aspects of quality improvement activities, including program planning, data submission, data management and analysis, and best practice development. And, the Wisconsin Flex Program works with the following partners and uses these additional resources to assist CAHs with quality improvement activities. 

Organizations and Partners in Quality 

• Statewide: 

  • Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) 
     
  • Metastar - Wisconsin's quality improvement organization (QIO) that works with health care providers to improvement quality of care.
     
  • Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative - Offering quality improvement services and programs geared to WI's rural hospitals and CAHs.
     
  • Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) 
     
• Nationwide: 
  • National Rural Health Resource Center - Resources, tools, and webinars focusing on rural hospital and Critical Access Hospital quality improvement.
     
  • American Heart Association 
     
  • National Rural Health Association
     

Quality Improvement Resources 

• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) - Rules, regulations, tools, resources, and policy briefings directly related to Medicare, Medicaid, and their impacts on CAHs.

• Hospital Compare - CMS' public quality measures data reporting tool.
   
• QualityNet - Established by CMS and includes health care quality improvement research, news, data reporting tools, and other information used for health care quality improvement.
   
• Joint Commission - Includes quality improvement certification, standards, and measurement criteria for hospitals, including CAHs.
   
• Flex Monitoring Team - This website includes CAH specific quality and patient safety data, reports and studies.
   
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) -  Provides tools and research aimed at quality improvement and patient safety, health care coverage expansion, and addressing the Triple Aim.

We have created a separate page for resources related to MBQIP.  Click here to access it. 

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MBQIP is a federal quality improvement initiative utilizing measures deemed relevant to rural settings. In Wisconsin, the project is managed by the WI‑ORH.  Rural hospitals report measures in the areas of HCAHPS, Emergency Department Transfer Communications (EDTC), outpatient, and influenza immunization. 

All hospitals, regardless of size and organizational structure, benefit from analyzing financial and operational performance. The Wisconsin Flex Program identifies financial and operational strengths and challenges in CAHs to implement activities designed to increase profitability.

Performance Improvement Resources and Links

• American Hospital Association - Performance improvement policy briefings, reports, and resources.
   
• County Health Rankings (CHR) - Measures vital health factors and outcomes in every state on a county-by-county level, and provides a useful way to explore the size and nature of health disparities in Wisconsin. It also emphasizes how state and community leaders can take action to create healthier communities.
   
• Flex Monitoring Team - Performance improvement data, research and policy briefings related to Critical Access Hospitals.
   
• National Rural Health Resource Center - Resources, tools, and webinars focusing on rural hospital and Critical Access Hospital performance improvement.
   
• Financial Data Reports on Wisconsin's Critical Access Hospitals
   
• Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub) (formerly the Rural Assistance Center, or RAC) - A rural and social services online library that focuses on funding opportunities, tools, resources, studied and other publications, events, and news.
   
• Wipfli LLP - Educational events for CAHs. 
   

Billing and Coding Regulations: 

• Medicare Billing Information for Rural Providers and Suppliers
   
• ICD 10 Regulations and Information - Rules, regulations, and the latest news on ICD-10.