To the growing number of revenue cycle management vendors seeking to help hospitals improve their bill collections and avoid bad debt, add Passport Health Communications.
The Franklin, Tenn.-based developer of business management and revenue cycle solutions for healthcare providers on Wednesday unveiled Payment Navigator, a new solution designed to help match uninsured patients with the best available method of payment before they receive medical care.
"There are 46 to 48 million uninsured Americans, the majority of whom depend on hospitals as their healthcare safety nets. Healthcare organizations must be proactive in managing their self-pay volume and properly categorizing patients who qualify for certain programs," said Scott MacKenzie, Passport's CEO, in an Aug. 25 press release. "Payment Navigator assures that every patient is placed in the correct payment category during patient access, before treatment."
Working with Bluemark LLC, a New Paltz, N.Y.-based provider of charity assessment services, and TransEngen, a Norwalk, Conn.-based developer of financial transaction platforms, Passport has developed a platform designed to automatically assess the registrations of every patient who is unable to pay for medical services. Payment Navigator than alerts hospital staff if the patient qualifies for Medicaid or charity care, or recommends a payment plan that can be processed through the company's eCashiering solution or with a CarePayment interest-free medical credit card offered in conjunction with Aequitas Capital.
Passport officials say, on average, 10 percent of all self-pay patients qualify for Medicaid, while many others have the ability to pay for their healthcare in full or through a finance plan. That's especially important given the results of a recent American Hospital Association survey, which indicated 87 percent of hospitals reported an increase in bad debt or charity care as a percent of total gross revenue. In addition, the AHA reported, overall uncompensated care has risen 69 percent during the past decade.