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The EMH Regional Healthcare System is a 434-bed, non-profit hospitalsystem with campuses in Elyria, Amherst, and Avon, Ohio. For a century, theEMH Regional Healthcare System has served the needs of Lorain County andgreater western Cuyahoga County residents. The hospital system recentlynoticed a margin squeeze as a result of increasing patient liability forservices. According to Philip Wells, director of Patient Financial Services,the hospital has experienced 17 percent growth in uncompensated care whilereimbursement remained flat over the past two years.
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"Over the last two decades, we successfully kept bad debt expense to aminimum," said Wells. "However, recent changes in the local economy and thegrowing share of patient liability for services resulted in escalatingdelinquencies. To keep prices competitive while providing the service ourpatient's have come to expect, we realized that we needed to reduce thefinancial impact of growing bad debt."
EMH selected TransUnion's HRCP, a Web-based solution that streamlines thehospital's admission processes by helping the staff verify patient identities,make objective payment determinations and match patients with assistanceprograms and charity care, all at the point of service.
"Although we looked at several solutions, we selected TransUnion's HRCPbecause we liked its real-time access to data and built-in charitydetermination," said Wells. "By objectively and quickly identifying thosepatients who qualify for charity care that would otherwise be considered baddebt at the point of service, we'll benefit in three ways. First, we canprotect those unable to pay and our non-profit status. Second, we'llsignificantly reduce administrative work involved in processing charityapplications. Finally, we can identify those with an ability to pay andimprove our collections."
EMH also will benefit from reducing returned mail as well. According toWells, five percent of the population the hospital serves is uninsured, butrepresents 55 percent of the bad addresses in the hospital's database. Byusing HRCP, EMH can confirm a patient's identity at the point of service,thereby reducing medical bills sent to wrong addresses and subsequentlywriting that care off as bad debt. EMH anticipates that it will go live withHRCP in mid-January.
In 2007, EMH Regional Medical Center was honored for the 10th time as oneof the nation's 100 Top Hospitals(R) by Solucient(R), part of ThomsonHealthcare, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve thecost and quality of health care. The award recognizes hospitals that haveachieved excellence in clinical outcomes, patient safety, financialperformance, efficiency, and growth in patient volume.
About TransUnion
As a global leader in credit and information management, TransUnioncreates advantages for millions of people around the world by gathering,analyzing and delivering information. For businesses, TransUnion helps improveefficiency, manage risk, reduce costs and increase revenue by deliveringcomprehensive data and advanced analytics and decisioning. For consumers,TransUnion provides the tools, resources and education to help manage theircredit health and achieve their financial goals. Through these and otherefforts, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies worldwide. Foundedin 1968 and headquartered in Chicago, TransUnion employs more than 4,000employees in more than 30 countries on six continents.http://www.transunion.com/business
Graphics and/or photographs to accompany this release can be obtained bymembers of the media by contacting Cliff O'Neal ([email protected]) at312-985-2540.
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