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4medica Solution Gives Labs Point-of-Care Collections for the First Time

CULVER CITY, CA — (Marketwired) — 10/09/14 — , provider of the industry–s leading cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) clinical integration platform, today released 4medica Collections Management Solution (patent pending). For the first time, labs and physicians can easily determine patient eligibility and co-pay responsibility to collect fees for lab or radiology tests at the point of care and time of service, eliminating the risk of unsuccessful collections from patients weeks later.

“The Affordable Care Act will give 11 million Americans health insurance coverage in 2014, and between 2015 and 2022, the number of newly insured Americans is projected to reach 30 million,” said Oleg Bess, M.D., 4medica–s CEO and Chairman. “As deductibles grow and networks narrow in response, patients will have much bigger payments and providers will have much greater urgency to collect them.”

Although point-of-service collections account for almost 40 percent of all self-pay cash collected, labs are collecting less than 50 percent of their point-of-service dollars due. The patent-pending 4medica Collections Management Solution for physicians and labs puts essential health plan and financial data at the point of care in an easy to learn and use format. Physician practice and lab staff can determine quickly what the patient owes during the visit, before the patient leaves. “Lab staff who never collected payments before can be proficient at doing so within an hour of training,” noted Dr. Bess.

With 4medica Collections Management Solution, providers can actually collect test fees for the laboratory as long as:

1. The patient is physically present: Point of care is any setting where tests are ordered, collected or performed and where users of the new collections module have face-to-face interaction with patients.

2. Eligibility information is available: The collections module transmits patient information to an eligibility information provider, usually a third-party that passes the eligibility information it gets from an insurance company to 4medica. The collections module uses the information to calculate the patient–s financial responsibility at the time of the visit, before the patient leaves.

3. The provider orders the tests: Although the patient may take them elsewhere, tests are ordered and entered by the provider, using 4medica–s Order Entry Module, the practice–s EMR, or third-party software. The collections module then calculates the patient–s financial responsibility.

In addition, if a practice or other third party collects money on behalf of a laboratory or a radiology center, the collections module can calculate total collections to support percentage-based incentive programs.

“With costs rising and margins shrinking, up front collections are becoming increasingly important to all providers– financial wellbeing,” says Dr. Bess. “Hospitals are collecting prior to admissions, physicians are collecting at point of service. And now, for the first time, with 4medica Collections Management Solution, both labs and physician practices can improve frontline collections to enhance bottom-line results.”

4medica provides the industry–s leading cloud SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) clinical data exchange and integration platform to help healthcare organizations of diverse types create a seamless view of the patient care experience and drive EHR adoption. The clinical data exchange platform integrates with and builds upon disparate systems to facilitate interoperable data exchange across various care settings to promote care continuity. The cloud computing model is scalable, lower cost, maintenance-free, easy to use and deployable in a few months or less, eliminating large capital outlays or resource utilization. This is especially critical for hospitals and physician health organizations of all types and sizes striving to qualify for ARRA incentives and to demonstrate Meaningful Use. 4medica connects hundreds of institutional facilities including hospitals, health systems, physicians, laboratories and radiology and pathology clinics. More than 30,000 physicians use its products. For more information, visit .