Tapestry: What You Need to Know About One of Epic’s Oldest Modules

Perspective from Jason Kulaga, Practice Director, Healthcare Solutions, Medix Technology 

If you’re an experienced Tapestry consultant, you may want to skip to the end where I mention we have two large Tapestry installs in progress and more on the way. For the rest of us, “tapestry” is a word that we probably associate more with the armor court at an art museum than planning add-on Epic implementations.

It may surprise you to learn that Tapestry is one of Epic’s oldest modules, originally developed to manage operations for healthcare payers. Before the rise of ACOs, quality-based reimbursement and the concept of a “payvider,” very few organizations, most located on the West Coast, actively used Tapestry.

With more healthcare organizations moving into the managed care and alternative payment model space, this is rapidly changing.

Tapestry at a Glance

Tapestry isn’t a single-function tool. Its modules span member enrollment and eligibility, plan benefits, referrals and authorizations, utilization management, customer relationship management, contracting and claims, accounts payable, and member premium billing.

Depending on your needs, a full Tapestry implementation may include some or all of these modules. The needs of an insurance payer will be very different from a hospital taking on risk management of a Medicaid population.

That range also makes staffing more complex. With 11 different types of Tapestry certification available, organizations may need a mix of project managers, analysts, principal trainers, business intelligence developers, and conversion or interface engineers over the course of a nine- to 18-month implementation.

Preparing for Tapestry Implementation

Whether your organization is new to Epic or adding Tapestry to an existing implementation, a successful install requires careful planning and coordination of build resources to ensure success.

Some of that work gets technical quickly. Core functionality such as Benefit Engine or Contracts Configuration requires complex build, while importing member demographics, plan data, and claims may call for conversion and/or interface engineer support.

Reporting and analytics should be part of the plan from the start, too. Organizations need to think about both replicating the reports they rely on today and how they’ll use the new operational data captured in Tapestry. Bringing skilled business intelligence developers onto the implementation team early can help turn that data into reporting that supports workflows, decision-making, and the broader integrated Epic system.

Don’t leave training until the end, either. Tapestry touches a wide range of roles and processes, so end users need to understand both how the system works and how it changes their day-to-day workflows. Building workflow and functionality training into the implementation plan early can make the transition much smoother.

The workforce plan matters just as much as the technical plan. Building the right team early can help organizations manage implementation timelines and costs while developing the expertise they’ll need after go-live. When specialized Epic expertise isn’t readily available, many organizations face the added cost and complexity of bringing in talent outside the market.

Medix helped one regional healthcare organization overcome that challenge by identifying skilled Epic talent locally, contributing to an implementation that was completed on time and under budget. As the organization’s CIO shared, “We wouldn’t have been able to find skilled Epic talent in our local market without Medix, especially given the size of the project.”

Looking at the Broader Payer Platform Implementation

Of course, Tapestry is rarely the whole story.

A broader Epic Payer Platform implementation can touch enrollment, claims, population health, reporting, analytics, integrations, and the workflows connecting payers and providers. As that footprint grows, the range of expertise needed to support it grows with it.

That wider scope makes workforce planning more challenging. Experienced Tapestry talent is already difficult to find, and the pool narrows further when organizations need professionals who understand both Epic and the operational realities of the payer environment. Waiting until implementation is underway to address those needs can create resource gaps at critical stages of the project and increase reliance on high-cost consultants.

That’s why workforce planning should happen at the platform level, not module by module. Before implementation ramps up, map the specialized roles needed across the project and identify where your existing team has expertise—and where it doesn’t. From there, you can build the workforce strategy around filling those gaps at the right stages of the implementation.

Across payer platform engagements, Medix Technology has helped organizations do exactly that, quickly scaling talent across Tapestry, Healthy Planet, data and reporting, integrations, enrollment, and project leadership. That support has helped health plans accelerate Tapestry implementation timelines, strengthen payer-provider integration, and expand population health capabilities.

Adding Healthy Planet

Like adding jelly to peanut butter or a pinch of cayenne to chocolate, many organizations choose to spice up their Tapestry implementations by also including Healthy Planet.

Healthy Planet is Epic’s solution for accountable care and population health; it is used to manage and track clinical and social determinants of health.

By leveraging Tapestry’s strengths in member management, registration and billing and combining them with Healthy Planet’s dashboards and analytics designed to provide insight into population health, risk factors and determinants of health, teams can create a complete tool for managing the clinical and financial needs of large populations.

As our healthcare system makes its slow transition from fee-for-service to quality-based reimbursement, these tools are critical components of healthcare IT.

Building the Team Beyond Go-Live

Go-live isn’t the finish line.

Once Tapestry is live, organizations still need people who can support, optimize, and expand the platform as business needs change. The question to answer early is which capabilities should eventually live inside your organization—and where outside expertise will continue to make sense.

MedixDirect® helps organizations build that internal capability by identifying talent from the local labor market, supporting their Epic certification, and integrating them into the client team. Then, they can then convert to the client’s payroll at the organization’s established salary bands, helping create a permanent Epic workforce rather than long-term dependence on consulting resources.

That approach has already delivered measurable results. One health system saved $7.5 million during its Epic implementation while filling 100% of its permanent post-go-live EHR support positions with internal team members or MedixDirect professionals.

Planning Your Tapestry Implementation?

Whether you’re implementing Tapestry for the first time, adding Healthy Planet, or expanding a broader Epic Payer Platform environment, start with three questions: What expertise will you need, where does your current team have gaps, and what capabilities will you want to own long term?

Is your team beginning to plan a Tapestry or Epic Payer Platform implementation? Connect with Medix Technology today to learn more about our solutions.

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