LAS VEGAS – TransUnion, a leading global information solutions company, today announced at the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s 2005 Annual National Institute, “Five Best Practices” for healthcare organizations to facilitate more effective and efficient revenue cycle management processes.
The impetus for the best practices is a recent finding that, while healthcare organizations are making a commitment to improving their collections procedures for the uninsured and underinsured population, there are a great deal of questions regarding how to best implement these new standards. This fact is highlighted in a recent white paper being released by TransUnion that demonstrates how new technologies, such as the TransUnion Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform, have brought significant benefits to the industry.
“The ‘TransUnion Five Best Practices’ are aimed at helping healthcare organizations adopt new strategies and technologies with the joint goals of being more patient-friendly and at the same time reduce expenses and streamline procedures,” said Geoff Hakel, vice president of vertical markets for TransUnion.
The “TransUnion Five Best Practices” include:
- Identity Management – reduce fraud and better predict financial performance by verifying Social Security Numbers, addresses, phone and other contact numbers from the beginning (i.e. at the point of registration).
- Appropriate Payment Options – develop an automated process and leverage new technologies to assess your patient’s financial situation to determine the best payment options.
- Objective Charity Program – maintain a healthy revenue cycle and ensure objective, consistent and current results by conducting an ongoing assessment of your organization’s charity program.
- Collection Prioritization – prioritize your collections efforts by incorporating data, evaluation models, decision systems, advanced analytics and expert consultation into your decision-making process.
- System Automation – automate the steps in your revenue cycle process to make informed decisions more quickly.
The “TransUnion Five Best Practices” are an extension of the TransUnion Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform, which was announced last fall. The solution provides information on applicable financial assistance programs to hospitals and their patients at the time of medical treatment. Along with prioritizing collectible accounts and co-payments, the TransUnion Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform assists in identifying patients who are eligible for self-pay discount, charity care, Medicaid, SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) and other public assistance programs and then facilitates the process.
“The Revenue Cycle Platform and associated ‘Five Best Practices’ help healthcare organizations improve relationships with their patients by aligning the patient’s needs with financial assistance programs and charity care that fit their financial situation,” added Hakel. “Through new processes and technology, our customers are proactively addressing some very important industry issues and, as an off-shoot, realizing improved collections rates with self-pay patients.”
For more information on “TransUnion’s Five Best Practices” and to sign up to receive a copy of the new white paper, stop by booth 1231 or call your local sales representative.
