Passport Announces Strategic Contract With Aegis Sciences Corporation

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Aegis Sciences Corporation, a leading laboratory science company, has selected Passport to help transform how it processes patient testing information and accepts payment. Aegis will use Passport's OrderSmart and PaymentSafe solutions to automate transactions between its central business office and more than 200 locations across the U.S., eliminating manual processes and creating a faster, more efficient, and more accurate workflow.

Aegis is a full-service forensic toxicology and healthcare sciences company, providing drug testing and consulting services to physicians, healthcare organizations, and many other businesses throughout the U.S. and the world. The company operates in more than 40 states. 

Aegis will use Passport OrderSmart and PaymentSafe to automate very manual, labor-intensive and inefficient processes, and give field staff the ability to collect payments up front.  

"While our business is very different from hospitals or other healthcare organizations, we still have to get paid for the services we provide, and we are always looking for ways to eliminate redundant or unnecessary work. Passport's solutions help us accomplish those goals. We are replacing manual, paper-driven processes with a fast, technology-driven, automated workflow," said Jeff Fisher, Aegis Chief Financial Officer.

Until now, Aegis' collection technicians have manually entered insurance and other patient information onto paper Laboratory Request forms, and then shipped this paperwork, along with the urine specimen, to the laboratory at Aegis' headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. The laboratory transports the paperwork to the business office once the specimen has been accessioned.  Some patient samples may be processed before an insurance eligibility check is even performed, and there is no way for field technicians to accept patient co-pays or other payments.

With Passport's OrderSmart, all orders and patient documents will flow automatically to the appropriate internal systems, streamlining the process and creating better coordination among field staff and the business office. Technicians will place orders from any location in the field using their tablet devices, enter patient data once, and it will be immediately available to business office staff. The solution will also automatically verify patient insurance eligibility up front, prior to specimen collection.

"The technology rollout will create a fully automated process and completely remove paper from our workflow. Field staff will be able to work quicker, and it will reduce unnecessary workload on our business office staff," said Beverly Cawthon, Chief Operating Officer.

Aegis' technicians will also begin collecting patient co-pays at the same time they collect patient specimens using Passport's PaymentSafe. The solution automatically posts payments to the patient's account, and displays outstanding account balances when a patient logs into the system, or when Aegis business office team members field a telephone call, giving patients an opportunity to pay in full or set up a payment plan.

"By asking for and collecting payment up front we will reduce the overall number of patient invoices we have to send, and reduce outstanding patient A/R," said Jeff Fisher. "It will have an immediate and very visible ROI."

"This is an important partnership for us for many reasons, including demonstrating how our solutions can be used across many different applications, and many different areas within healthcare. Aegis has several goals in its ambulatory environment that our solutions are specifically designed to address. We are proud to support nationally recognized organizations like Aegis," said Passport CEO Scott MacKenzie.

Passport currently works with more than 2,500 hospitals and more than 9,000 other healthcare providers. The company is implementing its full Suite of revenue cycle solutions, including OrderSmart and PaymentSafe, in more large healthcare organizations for use in both hospital/system and ambulatory settings.

For more information about Passport and its products and services visit passporthealth.com.

About Aegis Sciences Corporation 
Aegis Sciences Corporation is a full-service forensic toxicology and healthcare sciences company providing drug testing and consulting services to more than 2,500 clients across the U.S. and world, including pain management physicians, professional sports associations, colleges and universities, medical examiner offices, state and local government agencies, courts of law, and Fortune 500 corporations. For more information about Aegis, visit aegislabs.com.

About Passport     
Passport creates solutions to enable hospitals and healthcare providers to improve business operations and achieve Payment Certainty for Every Patient^™. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Franklin, Tenn., the organization is among the nation's fastest-growing Software-as-a-Service companies. The Passport eCare^™ brand of patient access and payment certainty solutions are delivered to more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and more than 9,000 other healthcare facilities in all 50 states. For more information, visit passporthealth.com.  

SOURCE Passport