New York City Fire Department Awards Ambulance Billing and Collection Contract to Health Management Systems

Health Management Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:HMSY) today announced that it will assume responsibility for Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) business office operations relating to billing and collections for ambulance transports. As the primary provider of pre-hospital emergency care in the five boroughs, FDNY operates the largest emergency medical system in the United States, with approximately 600,000 transports per year.

Under a competitively procured five-year agreement valued at up to $26.9 million, HMSY will manage FDNY’s patient accounting functions, including charge capture, eligibility verification, billing, collections, and customer service. The engagement will be supported from HMSY’s facilities in New York City.

According to Steve Rush, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Finance for FDNY, “The Fire Department expects this agreement to reduce our costs associated with handling complex medical billing paperwork, while at the same time accelerating collection of the amounts due us from Medicare and insurance companies. By assigning our billing and collection operations to experts in the patient accounting field, we can better focus on our commitment to delivering critical emergency medical services to the community we serve.”

“We are honored to be partnering with the Fire Department of the City of New York,” said Robert Holster, President and Chief Operating Officer of HMSY. “This new relationship supports our belief that more and more healthcare delivery systems in both the public and private sectors will view transfer of their patient accounting functions to a qualified firm as a means of redirecting financial and management resources to patient care delivery.”

HMSY provides similar ambulance billing and collections services to the City of Chicago, which operates the second largest emergency transport system in the United States.

HMSY furnishes business office outsourcing services to healthcare providers. The company’s services assist clients in enhancing revenue, accelerating cash flow, and reducing operating and administrative costs.