Healthfirst (www.healthfirst.org) is a not-for-profit managed care organization, sponsored by some of the most prestigious and nationally recognized hospitals and medical centers in New York. Thier mission is to provide high-quality health care coverage to individuals and families in our New York service areas through a variety of government-sponsored health insurance programs, including New York State’s Child Health Plus, Family Health Plus, Medicaid, and Medicare Advantage.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. – Passport Health Communications Inc. has announced a contract to deliver revenue cycle software and services to 15 hospitals owned and operated by St. Louis-based SSM Health Care. SSM will use Passport’s integrated Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to improve the speed, accuracy and efficiency of financial operations within each facility and achieve Payment Certainty for Every Patient™.

As part of the partnership, SSM will upgrade software and processes for verifying patients’ insurance coverage and demographics prior to service. SSM will also implement two financial screening solutions from Passport to help reduce overall uncompensated care and manage the charity care it provides. Payment Navigator produces a fair and accurate determination of an uninsured patient’s Medicaid and charity eligibility by performing an in-depth financial analysis and recommending the best payment avenue – Medicaid, charity care, upfront collection or payment financing. Assessment, application and reporting activities associated with Medicaid and hospital charity care enrollment will be automated and simplified using Passport’s CharityGuide.

“SSM is a faith-based organization with a mission of providing exceptional care for the people in our communities, regardless of their ability to pay. This solution assists us in appropriately distinguishing patients who have the ability to pay from those who don’t so that we can continue to serve our communities into the future,” said Jon Kimerle, Vice-President – Clinical Transformation, SSM Integrated Health Technologies. “We considered several potential vendors to help us improve in these areas. Passport understands our mission and is committed to working with us as a true strategic partner.”

SSM Health Care is sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary and operates nearly 4,000 licensed beds in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. The organization treats 2 million patients annually and employs more than 22,000 people. The system has received numerous awards for its commitment to exceptional care, including the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

“Every hospital, every health care organization is unique. Our relationship with SSM is an example of how Passport is more than a software vendor. We listen to our clients, recognize their challenges and lock arms to develop real solutions to help them serve their communities,” said Passport Chief Executive Officer Scott MacKenzie.

Passport will demonstrate these and other eCare® solutions at booth #1913 at the 2011 HFMA ANI Healthcare Finance Conference in Orlando, Fla. More than 1,900 hospital sites use Passport’s eCare® revenue cycle solutions.

For original article, visit http://www.passporthealth.com/About_Us/News/11-06-27/SSM_Health_Care_Upgrades_Revenue_Cycle_with_Passport.aspx

Author: Passport Health Communications

New Paltz, NY – The CEO of Bluemark, Bryan Exner has set the company on a path to expand the content for its flagship eligibility assessment and workflow tool MAPS to include all 50 State Medicaid programs by years end.

In order to meet this aggressive time frame, Bluemark has developed highly sophisticated internal tools to accelerate the acquisition of the required knowledge management and feed this content into its highly scalable and robust platform.

This effort has been initiated in anticipation of pending sales activity from several of Bluemark’s strategic partners. In addition, Bluemark will look to leverage this knowledge management rule set that will reside in Bluemark’s proprietary eligibility engine and provide access to interested parties via web services on a transactional basis.

All 50 States Press Release MAPS Aug 18th 2010

Mr. Exner has been a driving force providing guidance and direction to ensure the growth and profitability of the company. He will continue in his role as Lead Software Engineer in addition to his role as CEO. .Mr. Exner has been recognized as visionary with a focus on, and commitment to excellence in product development and customer service.

CEO Press Release Sept 1st 2010

New Paltz, NY – Bluemark LLC and Passport Health Communications, Inc. have entered a business partnership agreement to help health care providers increase revenue by decreasing bad debt and uncompensated care.

Technology and services from Bluemark and Passport drastically reduce or eliminate the costs associated with health care providers giving care to patients who cannot pay by determining which patients are eligible for state Medicaid programs or qualify for charity care or other assistance. Web-based charity care assessment technology from Bluemark alongside Passport’s eligibility verification and self-pay review provides a complete financial assessment for every patient. Passport’s address verification, credit scoring and credit card processing can also be utilized before the patient is treated to increase patient payments and eliminate potential bad debt.

Bluemark’s MAPSng™ solution will enable Healthfirst staff to streamline the transaction process, resulting in a faster exchange of information, higher acceptance rates and quicker payment cycles.

About Healthfirst
Healthfirst, established in 1993, is a hospital-sponsored organization dedicated to providing the highest possible care, access and customer service to its members. Headquartered in New York City, Healthfirst offers a variety of Medicaid, Medicare and commercial healthcare programs. Over 85 hospitals and medical centers and close to 20,000 physicians and specialists make up the Healthfirst provider network. The Healthfirst family of companies includes Healthfirst in New York, Healthfirst NJ in New Jersey, and HF Management Services, which provides comprehensive administrative services to healthcare organizations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.

In collaboration with the Greater New York Hospital Association, Bluemark and GNYHA have embarked on a national rollout of TRACker™, a dynamic web-based technology solution to provide hospitals with a powerful method to effectively manage the time-sensitive and complex workflow and documentation requirements needed to satisfy RAC record requests, process determination letters and navigate the multi-tiered rebuttal and appeal process. TRACker™ provides a sophisticated reporting component for real-time financial, compliance and HIM reporting at all levels of the RAC process now that the RAC program has become a nationwide audit function under the Medicare Fee for Service Program.

As of this date, agreements are in place with over 125 hospitals and health systems. In addition, 9 State Hospital Associations have endorsed the TRACker™ and are actively promoting it to their membership.

For more information, please contact Stewart M. Presser, Vice President for Corporate Affairs at GNYHA Ventures, Inc. (212) 506-5444 or presser@gnyha.org.

These organizations have implemented MAPSng in order to streamline their workflows for assessing Medicaid and Charity Care as well as ensure compliance. Of primary benefit is the ability to properly classify uninsured patients, maximizing reimbursement and avoiding the need to write these accounts off to bad-debt.