Apogee Medical Group Case Study

Profile

Apogee Medical Group was established on the forefront of the Hospitalist specialty. In 2002, when starting with Med USA, the group was providing services in Arizona with 9 physicians in 2 hospitals. In 6 years Apogee Medical Group has grown to over 350 physicians providing services in 25 states and over 50 facilities.

Challenge

Starting a physician group in a new specialty entails enough complications without worrying about billing and collections. Apogee was looking for a new billing service with the experience that they could have confidence in. In addition they needed a company that was willing to integrate heavily with both their internal processes and technology. Apogee Medical Group's primary focus is the patient, and they wanted to keep it that way.

Solution

After narrowing down the possible prospects to two companies, Apogee Medical Group started a detailed comparison. As a standard, Med USA conducts work on all claims to the point of turnover to a collection agency. The opposing company would only submit a claim once with no further work or follow up for payment.

In order to integrate technology, an interface was developed with Apogee Medical Group's proprietary clinical information system. This interface allows Apogee to download of patient demographics and charges to Med USA furthering automation that in turn reduces cost.

A specialized credentialing team and program was developed for Apogee Medical Group. This allows for a seamless flow of information and processes between Apogee and Med USA during the insurance credentialing and hospital-privileging phase.

Results

Med USA was able to quickly ramp-up Apogee Medical Group's operation to not only handle the current claims and collections process, but was also able to convert the data from the previous billing company and collect on the remaining A/R. This provided the much-needed increase in revenue to make up for slim margins created by the prior billing company.

Through integrating with Apogee Medical Group's proprietary software, patient demographics, and charges are downloaded to Med USA and submitted to the payer within 24 hours of services being rendered. This resulted in an immediate cash flow increase.

Nearly doubling in size every year would overwhelm almost all organizations. The development and integration of the credentialing processes has allowed for Apogee Medical Group to become highly aggressive with its growth while maintaining consistent collection rates.

Apogee Medical Group has found a partner in Med USA, dedicated to supporting them through their growth and changing needs.