Ochsner Health System recognized for $50 million in documented savings

LAS VEGAS, April 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ochsner Health System, based in Louisiana, was recognized at the 2016 Healthcare Business Summit with its 2015 President's Award for improvements exceeding $50 million. The award recognizes cumulative financial impact, as well as financial impact based on percentage of savings. Over the course of more than 10 years, Ochsner has achieved documented savings of $50 million for improvements implemented across the organization's spend and revenue cycle segments.

"At Ochsner, we are all about partnership," said Pete November, chief administrative officer, Ochsner Health System, noting that the initiatives in spend and revenue cycle with legacy MedAssets helped his organization "maintain the highest quality of care at an affordable cost in this region."

Spend Innovations
As Ochsner has expanded its network – today managing or affiliated with 28 hospitals and more than 60 health centers across the Gulf South region – key savings have been implemented across the organization's supply chain, with recent spend innovations focused on reducing costs for physician preference items (PPIs). Teaming with the Spend and Clinical Resources Management segment of legacy MedAssets, which was recently acquired by Vizient, Inc., Ochsner founded the Southern Strategic Sourcing Partners, LLC purchasing coalition in 2014, also known as S3P. Today, S3P members are saving an average of 14 percent on PPIs, based on more than $120 million in contract volume.

"It has been our honor to work with Ochsner over the years and support their efforts to provide sustainable care in the communities they serve," said Rand Ballard, chief customer officer for Vizient. "From working with them side-by-side on the ground in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to working with them to create the S3P purchasing coalition, we are proud to have supported their success."

Transforming the Revenue Cycle
Long-standing initiatives have also helped to drive significant improvements across Ochsner's revenue cycle. In 2015, revenue-cycle-related improvements resulted in $4.8 million, with a focus on collecting identified underpayments from payors and assistance with defensible price setting. Entering 2016, Ochsner is expanding its MedAssets-Precyse Charge Capture expertise into Epic pre-bill work queues, while continuing to fine tune claims management to support the organization's best practice business operations. In total, this has resulted in $18 million of the overall lifetime savings of $50 million.

"We are thrilled to have worked with Ochsner to support their success over the past several years," said Amy Amick, president, Revenue Cycle Management, MedAssets-Precyse. "We look forward to continuing our engagement with Ochsner as they evolve to optimize their financial performance under current reimbursement models, while preparing for the transition to accountable care and other value-based models in the future."

About Ochsner
Ochsner Health System is Louisiana's largest non-profit, academic, healthcare system. Driven by a mission to Serve, Heal, Lead, Educate and Innovate, coordinated clinical and hospital patient care is provided across the region by Ochsner's 28 owned, managed and affiliated hospitals and more than 60 health centers. Ochsner is the only Louisiana hospital recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a "Best Hospital" across six specialty categories caring for patients from all 50 states and more than 80 countries worldwide each year. Ochsner employs 17,000 employees and over 1,000 physicians in over 90 medical specialties and subspecialties, and conducts more than 1,000 clinical research studies. Ochsner Health System is proud to be a tobacco-free environment. For more information, please visit ochsner.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About Vizient, Inc.
Vizient, Inc., the largest member-owned health care company in the country, is dedicated to serving members and customers through innovative data-driven solutions, expertise and collaborative opportunities that lead to improved patient outcomes and lower costs. Vizient's diverse membership and customer base includes academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated health delivery networks and non-acute health care providers and represents almost $100 billion in annual purchasing volume. The Vizient brand identity represents the integration of VHA Inc., University HealthSystem Consortium and Novation, which combined in 2015, as well as the recently acquired MedAssets' Spend and Clinical Resource Management (SCM) segment, which includes Sg2. In 2016, Vizient received a World's Most Ethical Company designation from the Ethisphere Institute. Vizient's headquarters are in Irving, Texas, with locations in Chicago and other cities across the United States. Please visit www.vizientinc.com as well as our newsroom, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube pages for more information about the company.

About MedAssets-Precyse
The combined MedAssets-Precyse enterprise is the leader in providing end-to-end revenue cycle services, technology and education solutions. The integrated companies offer extensive capabilities to improve organizations' operational health grow business and ultimately improve the quality of healthcare. The companies are in the process of becoming fully integrated, a process that is expected to be completed in 2016. For more information, visit www.medassets-precyse.com.

MedAssets-Precyse Media Contact:
Lea Volpe
678.248.8203
[email protected]

Vizient Media Contact
Angie Boliver
972.830.7961
[email protected]

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SOURCE MedAssets-Precyse