Hospital Goes Live With Interoperable MU Enterprise Health Platform

By Karla Paris

End-to-end patient accounting, billing, and patient access system installed at Washington State Hospital.

In mid-October, an audit of St. Bernard Parish Hospital in New Orleans, LA revealed the hospital was not collecting millions of dollars owed to it due to a faulty billing and collections system. Despite changing its third-party billing and collections operations, the total amount due at the end of 2013 was almost $10.8 million – and less than half of that had been collected nine months later, according to the audit.

As horrifying as this story is, it is not unusual. One hospital in the state of Washington is trying to avoid this revenue cycle nightmare by being proactive with its end-to-end patient accounting/billing and patient access programs.

Valley General Hospital in Monroe, WA announced it has gone live with its complete, end-to-end patient accounting/billing and patient access system. The installation stemmed from a partnership with Medsphere Systems Corporation.

The hospital is utilizing Medsphere 's end-to-end suite of patient scheduling and registration, payer eligibility checking, patient accounting and billing, claims resolution and processing, contract management, denial tracking, and reporting applications to control costs, accelerate revenue collection, and deliver exceptional patient and provider service.

Medsphere’s OpenVista Insight is an all-inclusive suite of patient access (enterprise scheduling, patient registration, eligibility checking), patient accounting (universal billing, collections and payments, contract management), claims management, and informatics solutions. OpenVista Insight replaces Valley General’s existing HIS and add-on applications. The system is Meaningful Use Certified, 5010 and ICD-10 ready, and includes some of the following applications:

• Revenue Cycle Management
• Enterprise Scheduling
• Patient Registration
• Patient Accounting
• Collections and Payments
• Informatics

The system has been implemented at Valley General Hospital along with Medsphere's OpenVista electronic health record (EHR), a comprehensive suite of clinical support applications that enables improved patient care and more efficient clinician workflow. As a result, the hospital is gaining a fully interoperable, meaningful use certified enterprise health IT platform.

Valley General Hospital is Public Hospital District #1, serving East Snohomish County in Washington State. Since opening its doors as a public hospital in 1960, Valley General has continued to meet the health care needs of its community.

From its surgical and emergency services to its oncology department, and laboratory, Valley General provides quality medical care in a compassionate, healthy, and healing environment. Valley General provides patients with the following services: Chemical Dependency/Recovery Center, Emergency Services, Imaging, Laboratory, Nutrition Counseling and Services, Oncology, Pain Management, EvergreenHealth Primary Care - Monroe, Surgical Services, Therapy and Rehabilitation Services, and Wound Healing Center.

SOURCE: PR Newswire