NAPA, CA – Regulus knows the paper-based side of healthcare. It claims to send the highest volume of first-class mail of anyone in the U.S.
While it’s a huge provider in sending paper healthcare bills to consumers, it sees the electronic handwriting on the wall.
Regulus works with both providers and payers, and it sees the transition to electronic bill presentation and payment as crucial to helping the industry improve payment cycles and better manage bill payment and collection.
This month, Regulus begins rolling out its Transactions Squared (T2) application, enabling healthcare and other organizations to better understand and control billing and remittance transactions.
“What we’re focusing on is leveraging technology and data across the transaction lifecycle,” said Josh Wendroff, market analyst for Regulus. “Healthcare providers are trying to cut down on their back office operations. Our new products do that by moving away from manual processing and toward automation.”
Overall, companies are trying to reduce the amount they spend on paper and mailing by moving to electronic bill presentment, Wendroff said. Healthcare is taking baby steps in this direction, and the shift is complex, particularly as more checks are converted to electronic images through Accounts Receivable Check, or ARC, conversion.
Healthcare organizations will have a harder time pairing up paper or electronic images of checks with the accounts for which they’re intended, Wendroff said. Regulus’ new application is intended to keep the process under control. The system develops rules from month to month to gradually improve the reconciliation process.
Regulus’ new products enable providers’ customer service representatives to access an online archive to see various images, such as that of the paper or electronic statement, the coupon and electronic or paper check. With electronic transactions, the applications can take data and show a representation of a paper bill or check.
“What we’re focused on is ways we can do our core functions better,” he said. “We want to use data to make cash faster, more predictable and more efficient.”