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Several years ago, Cooper University Hospital management addressed its accounts receivable (A/R) days, which then stood at 60 days. With millions of claims processed annually at the 500-bed, not-for-profit hospital in Camden, New Jersey, Cooper University wanted to improve all aspects of the revenue cycle. Beginning in 2005, Cooper began to systematically maximize performance in key areas, leveraging tools and services from MedAssets to improve billing and compliance, claims and payment processing, contract management payment verification, and recovery of underpayments.

By implementing a suite of solutions from MedAssets over the last several years, Cooper has seen a reduction in its A/R days from 60 to 37 days and added an estimated $43 million to the bottom line.

Cooper continuously fine tunes its patient financial services processes, improving individual and organizational performance to meet the challenges presented by dynamics in health care regulations, and payor and service mix.

Cooper has implemented chargemaster, coding and compliance content tools, which provide the intelligence needed to ensure accurate charging and billing for timely reimbursement. Departments access coding and compliance regulations online to support billing practices and payor appeals. With a fully integrated contract management tool, Cooper addresses payor coding effectively; models payor contracts; processes claims against payor rules to determine expected reimbursement and net revenue; identifies where payment received is not as expected; and addresses these claims for denials, underpayments, and inappropriate discounts. Reviewing these payment trends helps the hospital identify internal breakdowns or repeat payor problems.

“With MedAssets, we have the ability to run daily reports, showing payment activity, including any variance from the expected reimbursement,” said Bob Perry, director of Patient Financial Services at Cooper. “As a result, we have a snapshot of who is underpaying, allowing us to proactively address these issues with the payor.”

To maximize its effectiveness, Cooper also draws upon the expertise of MedAssets Recovery Services. Working on a contingency basis, a team of experienced MedAssets professionals collects identified underpayments on aged accounts. These efforts have resulted in the recovery of $1.8 million in underpayments from 2007 alone.

Cooper also looks to MedAssets for the billing of compliant and accurate claims for timely reimbursement from payors. Using the claims management capability, Cooper improves its first-pass claims rate, and operational effectiveness. Cash flow is accelerated and the payment cycle is reduced. Additionally, a workflow capability allows Cooper to effectively manage unbilled or rejected claims initiated in upstream departments. Cooper holds these departments accountable for timely resolution, ensuring minimal disruption to cash flow and improvements in net collections.

Rounding out revenue cycle program, a patient bill estimation tool helps Cooper to improve the accuracy and transparency of pricing prior to service, increasing patient satisfaction and upfront collections.

“It is the combination of the suite of tools and services that allows us to manage our business more effectively,” Perry said. “MedAssets is a strategic partner for Cooper, and we work closely with them to maximize our effectiveness and to increase the automation of consistent business rules to eliminate human intervention. By strategically managing and planning these ongoing projects, we’ve been able to sustain our momentum and achieve significant return on investment.”

“In our experience, MedAssets' products not only provide us with the tools to collect contractually-owed revenue but also give us greater confidence in our ability to accurately forecast,” said Perry. “We strongly believe this product will prove equally successful.”