Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare Achieves Positive Results With MedeAnalytics' Patient Access Intelligence

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- MedeAnalytics, a leading provider of healthcare performance management solutions, released today at the HIMSS11 Annual Conference & Exhibition the results Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare has been able to achieve with MedeAnalytics' Patient Access Intelligence solution.

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In 2006, Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare realized the need to improve the front-end of its revenue cycle. It faced many challenges, including disparate systems, a lack of standard processes, and limited transparency and access to key metrics on a daily, weekly and/or monthly basis.

Wheaton selected MedeAnalytics to help the health system streamline the financial clearance process and provide excellent patient financial care to its patients. A few key focus areas included improving registration accuracy, improving pre-service and point-of-service collections, reducing days in accounts receivable and improving customer service performance.

The results have been significant. "As of our last fiscal year-end, we reduced bad debt expense by $4 million over prior year," said Wheaton's Director of Revenue Operations Integrity Beth Dengel. "We also increased our point-of-service cash collections by approximately 50 percent and reduced our days in accounts receivable by 18 days."

"We applaud Wheaton for achieving such stellar results with our solution," commented MedeAnalytics Chief Executive Officer Mike Gallagher. "Given today's economic environment — where every dollar is important to the hospital — clients such as Wheaton are rightfully focused on capturing front-end revenue, with direct, positive impact to the bottom line."

Clients using MedeAnalytics' Patient Access Intelligence solution have experienced significant improvements in point-of-service cash collections and reductions in bad debt. The comprehensive solution includes many key components crucial to the patient access process, including patient payment estimation, charity care screening, financial counseling, demographic validation, insurance eligibility verification, registration error quality assurance, patient payment risk segmentation and healthcare credit scoring, Medicaid eligibility screening, payment capture, outstanding balance collection, and registration reporting and analysis.

About Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare

Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare (WFH) is a Catholic, not-for-profit organization with more than 100 health and shelter organizations in Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, and Illinois. Started by the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters more than 125 years ago and formally incorporated in 1983, WFH has corporate services offices in Wheaton, Illinois and Glendale, Wisconsin. In Southeast Wisconsin, WFH is co-sponsored by the Wheaton Franciscan and Felician Sisters and has nearly 11,000 associates, making it the second largest private employer in the area. Hospitals include All Saints in Racine County; Wheaton Franciscan - St. Joseph and The Wisconsin Heart Hospital Campuses, St. Francis, Franklin Hospital, and Midwest Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Milwaukee County; and Elmbrook Memorial in Waukesha County. The region also includes Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group with more than 350 physicians in more than 50 locations, a network of outpatient centers, three transitional and extended care facilities, Home Health, and Hospice. Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare is also affiliated with Affinity Healthcare in the Fox Valley and United Hospital System in Kenosha. www.mywheaton.org

About MedeAnalytics

Founded in 1994, MedeAnalytics delivers performance management solutions across the healthcare system — including hospitals, physician practices and payers — to ensure accountability and improve financial, operational and clinical outcomes. For more information, visit www.medeanalytics.com.

SOURCE MedeAnalytics