PR - Indiana Hospital Selects TransUnion?s Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform

Columbus Regional Hospital, located in Columbus, Ind., has selected TransUnion’s Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform (HRCP) to help reduce bad debt typically resulting from medical bills sent to wrong addresses.

“We are servicing more and more patients in our emergency room and when those individuals are in crisis situations, they often are not in the right state of mind to provide their correct contact or insurance information,” said Susan Rust, director of patient financial services for ColumbusRegional Hospital.  “After we discharge them, it is too late to get their correct insurance information or if we have the wrong contact information on file, the bills are returned and we’re forced to write it off as bad debt.”

Columbus Regional Hospital processes approximately 250 pieces a month in return mail.  It selected TransUnion’s HRCP primarily for its ability to verify a patient’s identity at the point-of-service.  HRCP matches identifying information like address, phone and other contact information against its database to ensure the information the patient provides is accurate.  HRCP also will help hospital registration staff determine a patient’s financial resources, if they have private or public insurance coverage, the patient’s co-payment, deductible responsibilities and benefit limits.  It will then objectively qualify the patient for charity care and populate the appropriate forms as necessary.

“By determining a patient’s financial responsibility and qualifying them for the appropriate charity program at registration, Columbus can significantly reduce the amount of patient billing that will go to collections,” said TransUnion’s Marty Callahan, vice president, Healthcare Information Solutions.  “Moreover, HRCP can identify charity programs that patients previously may not have been aware of, but qualify for and automatically submit the information accordingly.”

“As insurance costs have gone up, more people are unable to pay their co-payment amount and may wait to seek medical care until their condition reaches a crisis,” added Rust. “Our mission is to provide healthcare to anyone who needs it and help them find resources to help them through the application process.  HRCP helps us fulfill our mission while alleviating many of the manual and subjective tasks associated with patient registration.”

Although infrequent, patients do misrepresent themselves to secure medical care as well. By correctly identifying the patient through HRCP, Columbus can reduce potential patient safety issues resulting from someone else’s information getting added to a patient’s medical history and subsequently putting that patient at risk.

Columbus Regional Hospital is a regional provider of healthcare services with 325 beds. It offers comprehensive services including acute care, emergency care, surgery, cancer care, birthing center, cardiac services, rehabilitation, a wide range of outpatient services and programs, psychiatric services and wellness services.  It serves a 10-county market area in south central Indiana: Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Ripley, Shelby and Scott.