Healthcare

Some States Continue Health Care Reform Efforts Despite Budget Deficits

2009-11-19T07:32:29-07:00

A year ago, when unemployment levels were skyrocketing and federal bailouts seemed non-stop, some health care reform observers speculated that state legislators faced with crippling budget deficits would halt efforts to reform the health care systems in their state. But with the uninsured population continuing to grow, and federal regulators still at work on nationwide reform, states are again moving forward with their own health care reform legislation, according to a report by the Kaiser Research Foundation.

Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and Utah have already passed legislation and are implementing reform plans that seek to achieve near universal coverage of state residents. Similarly, by July 2009, governors or legislators in at least 14 other states are at varying stages of some comprehensive reform efforts, including establishing commissions charged with developing recommendations on how to expand coverage, according to a Kaiser report on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Ed Haislmaier, a senior fellow for the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation said most state legislatures had expected some resolution on health care reform at the federal level, whether it passed or not.

“(States) are in a bind and they don’t know what to bet on,” Haislmaier said. “Clearly, they are looking for things they can do... If they do any kind of expansion in short term, between now and 2013, it all will be premised on maxing out the federal matching funds.”

Richard Cauchi, a spokesman for the National Conference of State Legislatures, added that because states have until 2013 before any federal health care mandates kicks in, most health care decision makers are looking at small, local, and specific changes that would be a part of health reform.

“They are not giving up and waiting. But (their efforts) won’t be big picture reforms,” Cauchi said.

Utah, Oregon, Iowa and Colorado are among the states that have acted more recently. Over this past spring and summer, each state passed legislation expanding coverage to children. Iowa and Colorado also expanded coverage for pregnant women and laid out a plan for covering every uninsured child in the state by January 2011. Oregon and Colorado meanwhile, expanded health coverage for some low-income adults, while Iowa and Oregon established a health insurance exchange. In August, Utah launched a test pilot of its new health care reform exchange.

Some states that did not succeed in expanding coverage for the uninsured established laws to promote pricing transparency or make it easier for residents employed at businesses that don’t offer health insurance to pay for health care coverage. For example, in Minnesota employers with 11 or more full-time employees who do not offer insurance must establish a Section 125 plan allowing employees to pay for health insurance with pretax dollars. The legislation provides funding to help employers do so.

Meanwhile in New Jersey, lawmakers sought to promote broader coverage by making changes to the individual insurance market such as allowing insurers to charge older residents three and a half times more for a policy than younger residents as a way to lower premiums for younger residents. Lawmakers also required insurers to offer plans in the individual market as a condition of participation in the small employer market.

Haislmaier said that states can’t afford to ignore health care expenditures because Medicaid accounts for 15 to 25 percent of their general budgets. Therefore, many state lawmakers have and will continue to make changes that don’t cost the states more money.

The report by the Kaiser Foundation shows that most of the health care reforms passed so far are being financed by insurance market reforms, hospital provider fees and federal funds.

Because most of the efforts include some form of Medicaid expansion, hospitals reimbursement rates will decrease. But Fitch Ratings Corporate Director Lauren Coste said hospitals still benefit.

“If states are expanding health coverage to people who would otherwise be uninsured, it’s a positive for hospitals and it helps mitigate bad debt,” Coste said. “People on Medicaid and state plans are not the single largest driver of bad debt. The fact that it exists, medicate the rise in bad debt, because people who would end up insured would have some coverage.”

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Combined Business to Create Next-Generation Revenue Cycle Solutions, Improving Administration and Ca

2009-11-16T08:19:34-07:00

Eden Prairie, Minn. and St. Petersburg, Fla. Ingenix, a leading health information, technology and consulting company, today announced it will acquire CareMedic Services Inc., an industry leader in revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions for hospitals and health systems, in a cash transaction.

With the acquisition of CareMedic, Ingenix will offer solutions that address each major component of the hospital revenue cycle: patient registration, eligibility verification, financial clearance, coding and compliance, bill submission, denials management, and remittance processing. Ingenix and CareMedic’s combined products and services will create a comprehensive suite of solutions for hospitals to manage the revenue cycle and improve financial performance – from the time a patient begins the registration process with a health care provider to the time payment for that care is received. This will be the industry’s only enterprise-wide solution that identifies inefficiencies as they occur, so clients can take practical actions to receive appropriate reimbursements and reduce costs throughout the process.

CareMedic provides hospitals with an enterprise platform of enabling technologies and services that optimize revenue cycle efficiency and improve cash flow, margins and productivity. CareMedic’s products and services include the Electronic Financial Record (eFR®) platform, which makes nearly real-time patient financial information accessible across departments within a hospital, helping clients take the right actions at every step of the revenue cycle to receive payments faster and more efficiently. With the eFR platform, CareMedic provides the industry’s most complete, historical view of a patient’s consolidated financial record with a provider organization. CareMedic’s capabilities will complement Ingenix’s coding and compliance expertise and automated credit balance resolution provided by its INTELLIJET® platform. CareMedic will also expand Ingenix’s existing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) capabilities with patient financial management services, accounts receivable management, secondary billing and denials recovery, and other managed services offerings. CareMedic has contracts with more than 2,500 provider facilities across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Said Vince Schmitz, CFO of MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, WA, and client of CareMedic and Ingenix, “The combination of Ingenix and CareMedic is powerful and will bring many benefits to the industry. Being a long-time user of products and services from both companies has significantly increased our yield at MultiCare. I look forward to the innovation that the combined intellectual capital and resources of these two organizations can create.”

Bill Miller, executive vice president of Health Care Delivery at Ingenix, said, “With CareMedic, we will transform RCM from a group of fragmented, claims-centric processes to a more comprehensive, patient-centric financial information management system. The RCM systems available today lack interoperability between front-end and back-end functions, slowing cash flow and impeding a hospital’s ability to collect payment for services that have been provided. Our vision and combined capabilities will create a customizable enterprise-wide analytics solution for hospitals that seamlessly connects to other systems.”

Sheila Schweitzer, CEO of CareMedic, said, “With Ingenix’s expertise in reimbursement, health information management and consulting, and our expertise in enterprise-wide RCM, we will create a unified solution that makes hospitals more efficient at managing cash flow and enhances our commitment to helping clients get paid. As part of Ingenix, we will be able to provide clients with additional services and continued innovations that help them use capital more effectively and improve operational efficiency.”

Hospitals and health care systems are faced with increasingly complex and changing reimbursement rules and practices. According to the American Hospital Association, hospitals lost $65.9 billion in 2007 alone due to bad debt, uncompensated care and underpayment by commercial insurers and Medicare and Medicaid programs, while approximately 21% of U.S. hospitals had negative total margins. CareMedic addresses these pressures and has a track record with clients of helping to reduce or eliminate underpayment by Medicare and Medicaid.

Andy Slavitt, CEO of Ingenix, said, “Innovation and talent are key to solving health care’s biggest challenges. We’re combining the great teams at CareMedic and Ingenix to deliver innovation with the common vision of simplifying the system, reducing waste and centering health care around the patient.”

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Accredited Healthcare Business Associates Now Accepting Membership Applications

2009-11-13T08:13:00-07:00

RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA — The Accredited Healthcare Business Associates (AHBA) program has begun accepting applications for accreditation from companies in the Accounts Receivable Management (ARM) and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) industries that serve healthcare providers across the U.S.

The program is a not-for-profit subsidiary of Healthcare Business Associates, Inc., and was created to provide outsourcing decision makers at hospitals, clinics, and physicians groups with a single resource to identify quality service partners—collection agencies, debt buyers, medical billing firms, and RCM companies—whose central business focus is on the healthcare industry and who have met AHBA accreditation standards that were created by healthcare providers and ARM industry specialists.

“This program was formed to better serve the common needs to both healthcare providers and their service partners,” said Jack Nixon, founder of the AHBA program.

“Numerous forces, not the least of which is the insurance reform bill before Congress, are driving providers to pay particular attention to both the quality of care and the business services they offer their patients, from the point-of-sale to the moment that some accounts roll into a collection stream,” Nixon said. “As an independent accreditation body governed by members who face the business challenges of the healthcare market every day, AHBA can assist providers in the evaluation of competent, quality-conscious, business services companies.”

About AHBA
The mission of AHBA is to provide the healthcare industry access to a qualified group of companies who have dedicated their service to improving healthcare A/R management, cash flow, and compliance, and to pair those Accounts Receivable Management and Revenue Cycle Management companies with healthcare providers who require their expertise as business partners.

Upon earning accreditation through the AHBA program, companies from the ARM and RCM industries will have information about their firms’ services posted on AHBA’s dedicated website, and their accreditation will be announced to thousands of healthcare provider organizations through AHBA’s participation as an Associate Member of the American Hospital Association (AHA).

For further information about the program, please visit the AHBA website at:
www.accreditedhba.org.

Banks and Health Care Debt Collectors Poised to Benefit from Rise in HSA Growth

2009-11-12T08:29:25-07:00

The dramatic downturn in the U.S. economy is accelerating the growth of high deductible healthcare plans (HDHPs), presenting short term opportunities for retail bankers and medical debt collection agencies, says an expert on the matter.

“Growth (in HDHPs) is very strong because of the cost of health care,” said Red Gillen, senior analyst for Celent, a research and advisory firm that publishes reports identifying trends and best practices in financial services technology. He estimates that in 2010, 8.2 percent of all U.S. workers will be enrolled in HDHPs, a 33 percent increase over 2009.

The growth is largely due to more employers offering the plan to their employees, and workers enrolling in them to save money on premiums, or because they have little choice.

According to Mercer LLC, a global provider of consulting, outsourcing and investment services, 18 percent of the early respondents to its 2009 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans said they are eliminating high-cost or more generous health plan options in 2010 as a way to move employees into lower-cost consumer directed health plans tied to health savings accounts or health reimbursement accounts.

With more than half of employers experiencing layoffs over the past 12 months and nearly one-third anticipating future layoffs, Mercer said the move is as much out of necessity as a desire to cut costs. Consumer directed health plans are significantly cheaper, averaging about 20 percent less in 2008 than traditional PPO and HMO plans, Mercer said.

“The economy clearly had an impact on rising health care costs...So employers have had to work harder than usual to keep the health benefit cost increase for 2010 down,” said Linda Havlin, worldwide partner at Mercer. “Those organizations hardest hit by the recession are making the biggest cuts.”

Although employees enrolled in HDHPs will benefit from lower annual premiums, Celent estimates that their out-of-pocket expenses will more than double, leaving health care providers to collect not just partial payment, but in many cases, full payment for the services they provide.

Some providers have prepared for shifting environment, Gillen said. But others have moved beyond collecting from a handful of insurers to an environment where they have to collect from hundreds, if not thousands, of patients in which they have no contractual relation, he said.

“In the short term, health care providers will need to collect more and that will result in more billing agency business,” Gillen said. But he cautioned that collection agencies’ business models will be threatened longer term by providers who use technology to better determine the portion of the bill that is the patient’s responsibility and collect it upfront.

Banks, meanwhile, will benefit from an estimated 8 million new HSA accounts established by 2012, Gillen said.

“For the next two to three years, there will be more HSA deposits for banks,” Gillen said. But he warned that the outcome of health care reform will determine what, if any, future HSAs have.

“Some members of Congress feel that HDHPs is not sufficient. The question is minimal coverage and do HDHPs meet that definition. If they do meet that definition, there’s a rosy future for HSAs. If they do not meet the definition of minimal coverage, HSAs will slowly fade away.”

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Conifer Expands Revenue Cycle Services Agreement with Colorado Hospital System

2009-11-11T08:02:33-07:00

FRISCO, Texas -- Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions, Inc. today announced it has reached an agreement to expand its relationship with a 12-unit hospital system in Colorado through 2012. Conifer will provide Medical Eligibility Counseling Services (MECS) to all 12 hospitals and continue to provide self-pay Accounts Receivable Management services to six of the system’s hospitals. The MECS program helps patients who may not have the means to pay for needed hospital services identify government programs, third-party payers and social service organizations from which they may be eligible to receive financial assistance.

“We began providing self-pay collection services to half of this client’s hospital system in 2008. Now, based on our team’s industry expertise and strong proven results, our client has chosen to expand our relationship and use additional Conifer services at all of its hospitals. We are very pleased that our client feels confident in our team’s ability to help them solve real business challenges,” said Stephen M. Mooney, President of Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions.

About Conifer
Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions and Conifer Patient Communications are operating subsidiaries of Conifer Health Solutions, Inc., which provides services to more than 100 hospitals and health systems nationwide. Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions utilizes proprietary workflows and technology to offer comprehensive revenue cycle services ranging from patient pre-registration through the processing of governmental, managed care and self-pay claims. Conifer Patient Communications provides best-in-class communication services that include physician referrals, patient education, marketing services and pre-admission clinical appropriateness reviews.

Born from healthcare, Conifer Health Solutions is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and employs more than 2,200 people. For more information, call 1-877-CONIFER or visit the company’s Web site at www.coniferhealth.com.

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Doctations Partners with Professional Claims Bureau in Providing End-to-End Practice Management and Outsource Revenue Cycle Solutions

2009-11-11T08:02:33-07:00

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. -- Doctations, Inc., an innovative leader in applying Internet technology to improve healthcare, and Professional Claims Bureau, Inc. (PCB), a healthcare revenue cycle optimization company, have signed a partnership agreement that allows PCB to utilize Doctations suite of software, including its iBillWell medical billing system, to deliver a best in class, full-service electronic medical records and practice management solution to physicians and hospitals of all sizes.

Doctations offers an innovative, cloud-based platform for Internet Healthcare which allows patients and doctors to share internet space for the purpose of improving healthcare quality and efficiency. Doctations enables physicians to manage all facets of their practices online, from efficiently handling the business and scheduling aspects of a medical practice to automating electronic medical record keeping. The Doctations system directly couples patient workflow management and a novel, easy to use and rapid EHR documentation system with integrated voice recognition and transcription management directly to its automated, claim-lifecycle-based medical billing and RCM system, iBillWell. Doctations reduces back office overhead, increases time healthcare professionals can devote to patient care, and improves outcomes by more directly involving patients in the care process.

PCB is a one-stop shop for end-to-end revenue cycle solutions, providing a wide variety of services from early stage day-one billing and patient statement mailings all the way through secondary and tertiary collections. Leveraging their decades of experience with revenue recovery, PCB will integrate their established best practices with the Doctations system in client offices to create a customized practice management solution for clients.

“There is great synergy between Doctations and PCB, because Doctations end-to-end, integrated clinical and business functionality provides PCB all the tools required to offer their clients the most complete revenue cycle and practice management solution available,” observed Jerry Kolosky, COO of Doctations. “With our software, especially the iBillWell system, PCB can now handle any source of revenue, from patient payments, insurance or any other third party source, more effectively to help healthcare providers maximize efficiency and optimize revenue.”

“In addition to the most advanced front-end patient management system ever created, the Doctations system’s back-end functionality for third-party billing, follow-up and collections is unsurpassed,” commented Leigh Marcus, Executive Vice President, at Professional Claims Bureau, Inc. “We are specialists in the intricacies of both third-party and self-pay billing and collections. With the combination of our expertise and the Doctations software, we are now positioned to set a new standard for outsource revenue cycle management solutions for physician practices, clinics and hospitals.”

About the Doctations Solution
Doctations provides Internet-based technology as a service to physicians, other healthcare providers and patients – and forms the basis for connecting practices, providers and patients in one Internet space while simultaneously maintaining the privacy of each practice and patient.

The Doctations solution gives physicians easy, online, on-demand access to patient medical records, medical information databases and shared patient databases, and empowers patients with the ability to share a single, complete set of information, or medical record, with their doctors, and collaborate interactively with their healthcare team. By implementing the medical practice management and digital documentation solutions as web-native tools, Doctations provides doctors and patients with advanced, secure, HIPAA compliant, comprehensive solutions that are substantially less expensive than any other options currently available.

The iBillWell component of the Doctations suite is a comprehensive web-based medical billing system designed from the ground-up to modernize the practice of billing and to reduce the overhead of billing operations. In addition to bill processing, it features online services such as claim scrubbing and automated phone reminders to improve office patient flow and billing operations.

About Professional Claims Bureau, Inc.
Founded in 1964, Professional Claims Bureau, Inc. (www.pcbinc.org) services Physicians and Hospitals with a unique blend of revenue recovery solutions. Providing outsourcing solutions for both third-party and self-pay initiatives, PCB acts as an extension of the client business office. PCB is also a licensed bad debt collection agency. Our focus is 100% healthcare and our approach to both outsourcing and collection solutions are entirely unique, based on vertical integration through a partnership with a cutting-edge software development company that enables us to offer an end-to-end revenue cycle solution. PCB aims to set the benchmark for excellence in the healthcare revenue outsourcing arena.

About Doctations
Doctations Inc. has created an innovative, internet-based means of transacting healthcare. Doctors simply login to www.doctations.com to register, and for about the price of a cell phone subscription, they are given all of the tools needed to run an efficient, state-of-the-art medical practice. The goal is to leverage the Internet to make healthcare more accessible to patients and to substantially improve the processes of healthcare such as generating medical documentation, medical billing and denial management. Doctations brings physicians the benefit of the first true internet EMR and PMS without the burden or expense of difficult-to-use software. Our technology is updated monthly to accommodate new users and new ideas from our member physicians, other healthcare providers and patients.

For more information, please visit www.doctations.com or call 1-877-Doc-Patient.

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Greenfish Fund Purchases Another Large Medical Debt Portfolio

2009-11-06T08:26:40-07:00

PHILADELPHIA—Greenfish Fund II, LP, a leading buyer of healthcare receivables, announced today that it successfully completed the acquisition of another portfolio of accounts receivable from a large non-profit hospital system. The cumulative face value of accounts purchased since the inception of the first Greenfish fund in early 2008 now exceeds $950 million. Greenfish expects to surpass the important $1 billion milestone by the end of 2009.

Commenting on the purchase, Greenfish Fund II 's Managing Director, Eric Raymond, said, “Hospitals are facing severe margin contraction as a result of declining reimbursement levels and increasing self-pay and insurance-related bad debt. Recently enacted Medicare and Medicaid audits create enormous administrative cost and threaten even to rescind past reimbursement. In purchasing old receivables, which have typically already been written-off, Greenfish provides hospitals with much-needed immediate cash for an otherwise dormant asset. A meaningful trend we are seeing is that hospitals are now willing to sell accounts receivable much earlier in the cycle than in the past.”

About Greenfish Fund II, LP
Greenfish and its predecessors have been active buyers of healthcare-related receivables since 2006. Capital deployed to purchase accounts has grown by double digits every year and is expected to increase again—by 100% or more—in 2010.

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As the Health Care Debate Rages On, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) Continue to Gain in Popularity

2009-11-06T08:13:41-07:00

While the nation's lawmakers debate possible ways to improve the health care system, a national consumer organization reports that thousands of Americans apparently believe they've already found an answer: Health Savings Accounts (http://usafact.org/HSA-HealthSavingsAccountforMedicalinsurance.html) (commonly known as HSAs).

"An HSA is a lot like an IRA," explains Vicki Rolens, managing director of the Federation of American Consumers and Travelers (FACT). "The money you put into the account offers above-the-line deductibility, reducing your adjusted gross income and thereby reducing your tax burden each year."

She adds that "There is one main difference between an IRA and an HSA: With an HSA, you are allowed to make tax-free withdrawals at any time to meet medical expenses that your health insurance doesn't cover."

In a bulletin to its members, entitled "How a Health Savings Account Can Save You Money and Simplify Your Life," FACT briefly outlines HSA basics:

   1. The consumer purchases a high-deductible health insurance plan (HDHP), which costs less -- often far less -- than a "conventional" health plan.

   2. Part or all of the money saved on premiums -- and saved on taxes --can then go into a tax-free health savings account (HSA). The account belongs to the consumer, not the insurance company.

   3 If a health issue arises, the consumer uses his or her HSA to pay any qualified expenses which the high-deductible plan doesn't cover. The money is withdrawn tax-free.

    4. In general, "qualified" expenses include dental bills, over-the-counter medicines, prescription drugs, eye care, hearing aids, and many other health-related items and services that the HDHP doesn't pay.

   5. All money remaining in the fund at retirement can be used to meet Medicare deductibles, long term care expenses, et al, or can simply be withdrawn -- without penalty if the consumer is over the age of 65.

   6. In 2010, an individual will be able to contribute up to $3,050 tax-free ... $6,150 for a family. The HSA can be opened in addition to any IRA the consumer may already have.

"The basic concept is simple," says Rolens. "You save money by having a higher health insurance deductible than usual, and you put that savings in a tax-free fund to meet medical expenses if and as needed."

"In essence, you pay a portion of your health-care budget to yourself instead of an insurance company, and you gain some distinct tax advantages in the process."

To qualify as an HDHP, a health plan's deductible amount must be at least $1,200 for an individual plan or $2,400 for family coverage.

Rolens points out that an HSA may not be right for everybody, and she recommends that anyone who's interested consult with his or her insurance expert or financial planner.

FACT is a consumer organization, formed under the not-for-profit corporation laws of the District of Columbia in 1984. It currently serves more than 1 million consumers nationwide. Additional information on FACT may be found in the Encyclopedia of Associations, and by visiting the association's Web site (www.usafact.org).

FACT's administrative office is located at 318 Hillsboro Avenue, Edwardsville, IL 62025.

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ACA International Board Halts Plans for Self Regulation in Collection Industry

2009-11-05T03:00:57-07:00

ACA International’s Board of Directors moved quickly Wednesday to halt proposed legislation that sought to create a self-regulation structure for the debt collection and purchasing industry after complaints from some of the board members.

The plan would have included federal mandates for state licensing and registration for agencies and collectors, and called for an industry education program run by ACA International.

Some board members told insideARM that ACA’s executive committee submitted the proposal in late September to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, as an amendment to legislation that would create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). Sources said Frank could have introduced the proposal within two weeks.

In July, ACA board members gave its executive committee the power to study and, if feasible, draw up a plan for a self-regulatory structure, complete with a nationwide debt collector registry and dispute resolution program.

But during a special meeting Wednesday of the board at ACA’s annual Fall Forum Conference in Chicago, directors voted to take away that authority. The board also directed the executive committee to withdraw, in writing and within 24 hours of the meeting’s end, its amendment proposal, and confirm to all board members the proposal’s withdrawal to Rep. Frank and other political bodies by Friday.

ACA National Board of Director member Jerry Greenblatt told insideARM he was “very happy” with the outcome of the vote. “What’s happened with the passage of this motion is that the decision making within ACA is slowly being given back to ACA members.” He added that the vote to withdraw the proposal “is a great victory for the members of the association, especially the small and mid-size agencies.”

ACA spokesman John Nemo told insideARM that the association will continue to study the issue while incorporating and addressing the concerns of the membership.

“We are a member driven organization. We listen to our membership,” Nemo said. “There was no intent to try to deceive anyone or do anything behind the scenes. We understand that this is an incredibly sensitive and important issue, perhaps the biggest one since the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) passed, and we want to make sure we do as good a job as possible of being transparent about the process and making sure our board of directors and our membership at large are informed and able to give their input.”

ACA’s actions regarding a self regulation program raised questions within its membership and in the broader accounts receivable management industry.

Emil Hartleb, executive director of Commercial Collection Agency Association, told insideARM that ACA’s approach to self regulation was “fraught with danger for the industry.”

“Anytime you look at licensing or registration, there are unintended consequences that will come out. We don’t need more licensing. What we need is hard enforcement against rogue agencies who are committing these atrocities,” Hartleb said.

David Goch, legislative counsel for the Commercial Law League of America told inside ARM he was “surprised” to learn about a proposal by ACA to apparently legislatively create a debt collection industry licensing body.

Lloyd Dix, vice president and general counsel of Union Adjustment Co. in Burbank, Calif., said ACA’s amendment proposal has some California Association of Collectors (CAC) members considering renewing its motion to amend its bylaws requiring CAC members to also be ACA members (“California Association of Collectors Votes to Stand Pat on ACA Membership Ties,” Sept. 25). Dix is also the chairman of the Legislative Council for the CAC.

Days before the meeting and vote, Rubin attempted to explain the executive committee’s action in a letter to the ACA Board of Directors.

In her letter, Rubin said ACA submitted the proposal, modeled after the SAFE Act for the mortgage brokerage industry, after a failed attempt to get Rep. Frank to include an exemption of the debt collection and asset purchase industry from CFPA oversight in legislation to create the new regulatory agency.

“He indicated there would be no carve out for the collection and asset purchasing industry and he would consider introducing the SAFE Act amendments for the collection and asset purchasing industry as a floor amendment,” Rubin wrote of ACA’s meeting with Frank.

Critics of the proposal, however, said it would drastically change the debt collection industry and was potentially more damaging than governance by the CFPA because on the surface, the proposal appears to require collectors and asset purchasers to obtain a license in each state they conduct business.

Some key elements of ACA’s proposal included a call for:

All agencies and asset purchases to be licensed and registered by their state or by the CFPA if no state licensing and registration program exists one year of the legislation is passed.
ACA International to be the sole provider of all training materials associated with 20 hours of mandated initial education required to be licensed, under the scheme the amendment proposes and 8 hours of education necessary for annual renewals
Every collection agency must be licensed by the state as a debt collector before engaging in the collection of debt
Every individual debt collector must work for a state-licensed debt collector and must be individually registered by the state as a debt collector within 90-days of employment
The proposal also called for each collector to be subject to criminal background checks, finger printings by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and criminal background checks
Establishment of national licensing for states which do not adopt their own state licensing programs, with no preemption of state laws, thus adding an additional level of bureaucracy.

Greenblatt, who is also President-elect of the CAC, called the proposal “a monumental detriment to small and mid-sized debt collection agencies because of the additional costs and burden, and the monopoly that ACA attempted to mandate through federal legislation on education.”

Dix said the resolution program proposed also did not preempt any state or federal legal actions or bar any judicial remedies. “It was quite a blow when we saw it,” Dix said. “We had no idea it was coming.”

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Capio Partners Partners with Aequitas Capital Management to Purchase Bad Debt Receivables

2009-11-02T08:15:15-07:00

Atlanta, Georgia – Capio Partners, LLC, has partnered with Aequitas Capital Management, Inc., an alternative investment firm providing a $20 million revolving facility to purchase late-stage, patient self-pay healthcare receivables. The agreement between both organizations represents a commitment to provide alternative revenue cycle options to healthcare entities nationwide.

"Aequitas is pleased to work with Capio Partners, a company that shares our continued interest and commitment to the healthcare industry” said Robert Jesenik, CEO of Aequitas Capital Management. "Capio’s leadership and staff have more healthcare specific knowledge than any other organization of its kind, and their Complaintless Collection™ philosophy and our core principles fall hand-in-hand.”

“Aequitas Capital Management has a long history of service in the healthcare sector with their already established CarePayment® product. Healthcare providers should improve their revenue stream from their self-pay receivables with the combination of CarePayment®, a front-end solution, and Capio’s debt purchasing product, a back-end solution” said Jim Richards, President and CEO of Capio. “By partnering with Aequitas, Capio is positioned to achieve its revenue goals with a partner that truly understands the intricate healthcare market. We look forward to a long and lasting partnership and believe this is a mutually beneficial union of two great companies.”

About Aequitas Capital Management, Inc.
Established in 1993, Aequitas Capital is a value-oriented alternative investment firm providing private equity and commercial finance products to investors and capital to the middle-market, healthcare, manufacturing, services and energy sectors. Within the healthcare sector, Aequitas offers a hospital-branded finance program called CarePayment®. The program enables patients to pay for hospital services at 0% interest while providing hospitals with immediate funding for patient-pay receivables. For more information, visit www.aequitascapital.com or call (503) 419-3500.

About Capio Partners, LLC
Capio Partners is considered to be one of the premier healthcare debt purchasers in the industry. As the pioneers of Complaintless Collections™, Capio Partners coordinates the hospital’s patient-centered culture with its fiscal need for a profitable and predictable cash flow. With a 35-year track record in the healthcare receivables industry, Capio Partners delivers results while keeping hospitals compliant with CMS Regulations. Capio Partners is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia with operations in Sherman, Texas. Visit www.complaintless.com for additional information.

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Collection Associates Announces Acquisition of Money Recovery Nationwide

2009-10-30T06:33:45-07:00

Chicago, IL - LaSalle Capital Group, L.P.'s ("LaSalle Capital") portfolio company Collection Associates, LLC ("CAI") is pleased to announce the acquisition of Money Recovery Nationwide ("MRN").

MRN, headquartered in Lansing, Michigan provides debt collection services to the healthcare industry. MRN has been active in the industry dating back to 1988, and is regarded as a premier provider of third-party collections for hospitals and physician groups in the state of Michigan.

MRN is the fourth collection agency purchased by CAI, and represents a significant addition to CAI's Midwestern focused strategy.

"Alan Jacoby and his team have built one of the most important agencies in Michigan. Their broad reach throughout the state increases our geographic footprint substantially and firmly establishes our combined organization as the premier Midwest-based healthcare accounts receivable management business," stated Rocco Martino, a Partner at LaSalle Capital.

Mark Schabel, CEO of CAI added, "MRN will be an outstanding addition to our portfolio of agencies, and we are excited that Alan Jacoby and Gary Ferdig are going to continue on as part of the management team to take the organization to a new level."

Alan Jacoby stated, "Our acquisition by CAI will allow us to deploy new product offerings and leading technology to best serve our clients in this tough economic environment. I am excited about the business combination and think that this will expand our ability to serve the needs of the Michigan market."

If you have questions on this Company or would like to discuss other opportunities in the healthcare collections industry, please contact either Rocco Martino or Nick Christopher at LaSalle Capital.