TransUnion's Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform Addresses Illinois Attorney General's Charity Care Proposal

The TransUnion Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform, a solution that automates the process for determining whether a patient is eligible for charity or other financial assistance, addresses many of the proposed requirements in Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's recent "Charity Care" initiative.

Madigan's proposal, Illinois House Bill 5000, would set forth the terms under which a hospital must provide full charity care and automatic discounts to Illinois residents in order to maintain their tax-exempt status. Hospitals also would need to prove that at least 8 percent of their annual operating costs are allocated toward charity care for poor or uninsured patients.

"Before the TransUnion Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform was introduced, asking a hospital to identify self-pay patients eligible for charity care and automatically give them income-based discounts was a difficult and daunting task," said Geoff Hakel, vice president of Healthcare for TransUnion. "Our service leverages TransUnion's consumer databases and sophisticated decisioning technology to automatically qualify self-pay patients for financial assistance at the time of their medical treatment and even generate the necessary paperwork. We also facilitate the application process and offer comprehensive reporting features so that hospitals can proactively communicate their charity care distributions on a timely basis."

Last fall during the hurricanes, TransUnion made the Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform available to hospitals and healthcare facilities in the Gulf Coast region free of charge so they could adequately provide information on applicable financial assistance programs to their patients at the time of medical treatment. The Web-based program helps to correctly identify self-pay patients who are eligible for discount, charity care, Medicaid, SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) and other public assistance programs.

Many healthcare organizations across the country have gotten out ahead of the charity care issue addressed in Madigan's proposal by implementing the TransUnion Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform during the last two years. "These forward-looking hospitals understand that charity care is available for a reason, and they have an obligation to ensure that qualified patients get access. We are pleased that our service has given hospitals an objective and efficient means to fulfill this important community benefit," concluded Hakel.