WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 1,100 individual hospitals that are members of The Advisory Board Company's research, technology, and consulting programs have recorded more than $1.5 billion in aggregate, directly attributed return on investment (ROI), the firm announced today.

"It is inspiring to see how we are able to help members use best practices to improve patient outcomes and community health, and sustain and improve margins," said Robert Musslewhite, Chairman and CEO at The Advisory Board Company. "In the increasingly complex and competitive health care environment, our members need to make data-driven decisions tailored to their unique challenges. We are proud to partner with our members in identifying and, through our technology and consulting, helping to implement the best practices that work for them."

Hospitals representing more than 65% of inpatient admissions in the United States use Advisory Board technology platforms. The firm's technology helps hospitals and health systems reduce care variation, manage 10 million patient lives, attract patient and physician referrals, improve medical group performance, and increase operating margins.

Ranked by Modern Healthcare magazine as a Top 5 consulting firm, Advisory Board consulting has completed more than 2,300 engagements for strategy, population health, patient experience, network development, care delivery and transformation, electronic health record optimization, revenue cycle, labor productivity, spend performance, and medical group performance. The firm has more than 390 consultants, including management executives and clinicians with operational experience running critical hospital and medical group departments.

Institutions that have recently reported their ROI from their Advisory Board memberships include:

Bellin Health Systems, based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, reduced its reimbursement gap by more than $2.2 million in one year by uncovering key revenue underpayment and denial opportunities. Bellin Health added a "second line of defense," an Advisory Board workflow tool to identify reimbursements that weren't recovered by its Patient Accounting System. Advisory Board data show that health systems are typically successful on 32% of their appeals to government payers but Bellin Health won 83% of these appeals. For commercial payers, health systems typically succeed 49% of the time but Bellin Health prevailed on 69%.

Hunt Regional Healthcare, based in Greenville, Texas, added new initiatives for its patient financial services and managed care teams, with whom Advisory Board worked to maximize reimbursement recoveries and recoup more than $1.3 million in 18 months. Hunt has found that challenges in underpayments, payer contracts, and denials are all strongly interconnected and formed a cross-functional team to increase collaboration between patient financial services, patient account management, and contract analysis. With support from Advisory Board data, these teams took on appeals on underpaid and denied accounts, building and running contract models to aid in contract renegotiations, and validating rate schedule updates. Advisory Board also provided a specialist on data and contract issues, aiding Hunt Regional's 65% improvement in recoveries in 12 months.

Baptist St. Anthony (BSA) Health System, based in Amarillo, Texas, worked with Advisory Board and health system physicians to consolidate spine supply vendors from 47 to two, saving $2.8 million. The system's director of materials management collaborated with Advisory Board to analyze pricing opportunities and identified spine supply vendors to consolidate. The system's materials team also shadowed surgeons and proactively engaged them through weekly "rounding." BSA Health now includes surgeons in every conversation with vendors.

About The Advisory Board Company
The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ: ABCO) is a best practices firm that uses a combination of research, technology, and consulting to improve the performance of 5,500+ health care and education organizations. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices worldwide, The Advisory Board Company forges and finds the best new ideas and proven practices from its network of thousands of leaders, then customizes and hardwires them into every level of member organizations, creating enduring value. For more information, visit www.advisoryboardcompany.com.

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