Emdeon Presents Webcast on Optimizing the Healthcare Revenue Cycle

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Emdeon Inc., a leading provider of healthcare revenue and payment cycle management and clinical information exchange solutions, recently released an educational webcast video titled, "The IT Remedy for Healthcare Revenue" featuring Gartner, a global research and advisory firm. As a follow-on to the webcast video, Emdeon will sponsor a live webinar later this month with a case study exploring how one health system, Centra Health in Virginia, has strengthened its bottom line through eligibility and enrollment services.

Effective management of the revenue cycle is among the top administrative challenges hospitals and health systems face. From accurate charge capture, to efficient claims submission and growing volumes of self-pay cases, health leaders seek strategies to optimize revenue and support superior care for patients. The webcast video presented by Ed Caldwell, senior vice president of revenue cycle solutions for Emdeon, and featuring Vi Shaffer, research vice president for Gartner, focuses on how technology-enabled professional services can help organizations address their most pressing revenue cycle concerns.

"Revenue cycle management in the healthcare industry is an end-to-end process across many different and intricate phases," says Shaffer. "Our research indicates that managing financial outcomes and the cost to collect effectively will only grow in importance due to the complexities involved."

To better manage the challenges of the revenue cycle, many healthcare organizations are integrating professional services to leverage outside expertise and increase revenue. A suboptimal eligibility and enrollment program, for example, might not provide the healthcare organization adequate resources to identify all possible coverage options for the uninsured and the underinsured, resulting in uncompensated care or bad debt. On the other hand, well-trained eligibility and enrollment professionals—often outsourced—are able to screen self-pay cases to ensure these patients are matched with the appropriate government, charity or community benefits programs. Therefore, by optimizing an eligibility and enrollment program, not only does the healthcare organization receive payment for care delivered, but the patients' coverage remains in effect after the current episode of care, enabling them to seek important follow-up care and other healthcare services in the future as well.

"Healthcare organizations need to aggressively evaluate every facet of their revenue cycle and make improvements through technology and professional services to maximize revenue," says Caldwell. "Professional services related to eligibility and enrollment programs, for instance, can work in conjunction with existing revenue cycle processes to help maximize returns."

The topic of eligibility and enrollment will be explored in greater depth in a live webinar titled, "Ten Key Performance Indicators to Strengthen Eligibility and Enrollment Services —and Your Bottom Line," to be held at noon EDT on August 21^st. Joe Koons, managing director of revenue cycle at Centra Health, will detail specific strategies and metrics his organization relies upon to maximize returns from its eligibility and enrollment program. Joined by Matt Russel, regional vice president of business development for Chamberlin Edmonds, an Emdeon company, Koons will talk about how Centra Health has significantly decreased its bad debt over the past decade.

To learn more about how Centra Health has structured its eligibility and enrollment program and how it optimizes its success by monitoring key performance indicators, register for Emdeon's free webinar at: http://www.emdeon.com/eligibilityandenrollmentwebinar/.

About Emdeon
Emdeon is a leading provider of revenue and payment cycle management and clinical information exchange solutions, connecting payers, providers and patients in the U.S. healthcare system. Emdeon's offerings integrate and automate key business and administrative functions of its payer and provider customers throughout the patient encounter. Through the use of Emdeon's comprehensive suite of solutions, which are designed to easily integrate with existing technology infrastructures, customers are able to improve efficiency, reduce costs, increase cash flow and more efficiently manage the complex revenue and payment cycle and clinical information exchange processes. For more information, visit www.emdeon.com.

SOURCE Emdeon Inc.