Hospitals and Health Systems Increasingly Turning to Analytics to Help Cut Costs, Increase Revenues and Manage Government Compliance, Healthcare Thought Leaders Agree

NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- With healthcare reform in process, hospitals and health systems are utilizing real-time analytics to cut costs, increase revenue, and comply with intensifying government audits, speakers agreed today at a conference sponsored by MedeAnalytics, a leading provider of healthcare performance management solutions.

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"Analytics will help manage these challenges by building solutions that aggregate disparate data sets into useful management information," said MedeAnalytics Chief Executive Officer Mike Gallagher, who noted that uncertainty in healthcare has been intensified by the pending Supreme Court decision on the health reform law, the fall presidential election, and a number of unresolved tax and budgetary issues.

A panel of leading healthcare analysts agreed with Gallagher that payers and providers will need robust analytic capabilities to address a myriad of issues related to healthcare reform. Members of the analyst panel were:

• Richard Close, senior research analyst, Avondale Partners
• Ryan Daniels, partner, William Blair & Co.
• Frank Sparacino, vice president, First Analysis
• Jamie Stockton, director and senior equity research analyst, Wells Fargo Securities

Today's featured speakers were:

John Doll, vice president of financial management, Barnabas Health, NJ. Doll talked about how using MedeAnalytics' Patient Access Intelligence (PAI) solution, Barnabas Health, New Jersey's largest integrated healthcare system, has been able to significantly improve front-end patient cash collections and reduce authorization denials. Barnabas is using PAI at all six of its facilities.

Janice Ridling, vice president of revenue management, Baptist Health System, Birmingham, Ala. Baptist Health serves two million residents in Central Alabama. Baptist's revenues were hit in 2008 like other facilities across the country, and in response, it moved to centralize revenue collections and management. "When we started the project, completion of the pre-authorization process was only 35 percent, resulting in wait times at patient registration of up to 24 minutes. By 2011, we had increased completed pre-authorizations to 100 percent and wait times were cut in half. Data transparency was key to success. With MedeAnalytics you can get more transparent."

Greg Radinsky, vice president and chief corporate compliance officer, and Melissa McCarthy, director, compliance auditing, North Shore-LIJ Health System (NSLIJ), Long Island, NY. Radinsky noted that there is a new intensity of government compliance oversight spurred by the government's drive to reduce overutilization of healthcare services. As a result, data mining has become more important than ever, he said. He noted that compliance is both an art and a science. NSLIJ uses MedeAnalytics' Compliance and Revenue Integrity solution to help anticipate and preclude compliance problems.

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.

For more information:
Gary Summers
Lewis & Summers Public Relations
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SOURCE MedeAnalytics