Craneware Shares Patient Estimation Revenue Integrity Insights

ATLANTA, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Due to rising patient responsibility for paying their own healthcare bills and increasing numbers of state laws requiring disclosure of information on hospital charges, hospitals are increasingly being asked to provide accurate patient estimates for healthcare services. Competitive hospitals also realize they must have a new level of transparency to demonstrate accountability to key stakeholders, protect against compliance risks, focus on cost-control and increase upfront collections. As a result, hospitals must establish effective processes for providing speedy, accurate estimates.

Craneware, Inc. (AIM: CRW.L), the market leader in automated revenue integrity solutions, will share best practices and strategies for supporting upfront collections and improving patient satisfaction at two upcoming events.

"Success Strategies for Implementing Upfront Collections in a Mid-Size Hospital" will be presented at the National Association of Healthcare Access Management (NAHAM) 36th Annual Educational Conference & Exposition. The presentation will highlight the success of St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, Maine. A 112-bed hospital, St. Joseph's used Craneware's Patient Charge Estimator™ solution to increase upfront collections, improve cash flow and enhance patient satisfaction.

"The Healthcare Transparency Act of 2009 brought attention to the growing need to educate patients on the costs of services before they are rendered to improve hospitals' collections and ensure that patients can adequately plan for their healthcare bills," said Kelley Blair, Craneware's vice president of professional services. "Craneware's Patient Charge Estimator provides accurate estimates by using a hospital's claims data and managed care contracts to generate defensible estimates for inpatient and outpatient services."

Craneware also is sponsoring a Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) Audio Webcast, "Implementing Patient Friendly Billing® and Improving Upfront Collections." The Webcast will educate attendees on:

• Self-pay trends, including potential barriers

• HFMA's Patient Friendly Billing objectives

• Using automated tools to enhance patient relations, increase upfront collections and reduce bad debt

St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif., will share how they leveraged Patient Charge Estimator to comply with Patient Friendly Billing, increase operational efficiency, optimize reimbursement, minimize compliance risk and create a more productive provider-consumer relationship.

For both presentations, hospital executives will share real-life experiences of how automated solutions enable accurate pre-service estimates to be provided. At NAHAM, Blair will be joined by Lisa L. Killam, CPC, reimbursement charge supervisor at St. Joseph Hospital in Maine. Blair also will participate on the Webcast panel, along with Monica Sonnie-Hoch, director of revenue cycle integrity for St. Joseph Hospital in California, and Suzanne Lestina, CHFP, CPC, senior technical manager of PFS/revenue cycle for HFMA.

"Success Strategies for Implementing Upfront Collections in a Mid-Size Hospital" is scheduled for NAHAM's Point of Service Symposium on Friday, April 30, 2010, in Orlando, Fl.

The HFMA Webcast is scheduled for Wednesday, May 12, 2010, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. CDT. HFMA members who are also members of an HFMA Forum can register for free at http://www.hfma.org/Education-and-Events/Online-Learning/Webinars/Implementing-Patient-Friendly-Billing-and-Improving-Upfront-Collections/. Pricing information for non-members is also available at that location.

View the social media release at http://pitch.pe/60317.

About Craneware

Craneware (AIM: CRW.L) is the leader in automated revenue integrity solutions that improve financial performance for healthcare organizations. Craneware's market-driven, SaaS solutions help hospitals and other healthcare providers more effectively price, charge and code for services and supplies associated with patient care. This optimizes reimbursement, increases operational efficiency and minimizes compliance risk. By partnering with Craneware, clients achieve the visibility required to identify, address and prevent revenue leakage. To learn more, visit craneware.com.

SOURCE Craneware