Medical Management

By Premier |

CLIENT PROFILE

• Largest primary care group and management company in the Greater Long Beach, California Area
• Ten years in business
• All offices automated via T-1s or DSL
• Manage 70 Physician, multi-specialty groups including payroll, accounting, pension, etc.

SIZE:

• Staff consists of 50 members in CBO with 18 in Administration and 230 in Physician Offices
• Manage over 90 Physicians in Greater Long Beach Area in over 40 office locations as well as billing for over 120 Physicians
• Over $40 Million per year in collections
• Additional 200 physicians in Purchasing Co-op Model 

SERVICE LINES:

• Physician Office Management
• Physician and Hospital Outpatient Billing
• Physician Purchasing Network
• Leasing of Physician Billing Systems ASP Model

ACCOUNT PROFILE

• Work in Progress:

  • Providing data/charge entry and payment posting, as well as AR follow-up
  • Work performed in two systems: PCN and Medical Manager

• Premier has reduced the total accounts receivable aging to below 10%:

  • Controlling the SLA- 50 accounts per day per agent

• Experience with Offshore Staff:

  • Premier BPO's offshore staff has proven exceedingly more educated, dedicated and motivated than that of Client's previous internal or other outsourced experience
  • No voluntary turnovers to date
  • QA process implemented to measure and evaluate staff
  • Errors have dropped to 2% or less in primary areas

ECONOMIES REALIZED

• Hourly cost reduction- currently approximately 60% of Argus' direct labor cost plus benefits.

• Hourly cost of direct labor includes:

  • Telecommunications
  • Management Oversight
  • Recruiting
  • Training & Re-Training
  • Rent, Equipment, Utilities, etc.
• Argus will eventually downsize additional rentable space when their current lease is up, thereby achieving significant additional savings by eliminating such brick and mortar expenses as rent, equipment, government mandated expenses, insurance, etc.
• When other non-labor costs are considered, an impressive savings of at least 50% cost is realized.

HOW DOES THE PROCESS WORK?

• Workflow:

  • Work is scanned into Premier's workflow system
  • Work is then routed to stations at Premier's offshore facility
  • Outsourced staff log is entered into Premier's billing systems via T-1s, in the same manner as Premier's other clients in California

• Telecommunications:

  • Dial a local number to talk to the remote office
  • Cost is included in the hourly rate; thus, the client incurs no additional telecommunications expenses

• Management:

  • While the Client does not manage the outsourced staff, they can manage the workflow
  • Argus receives daily productivity reports and error rates by section
  • Argus has the full ability to communicate directly with managers for Premier's outsourced staff
  • Entire cost of Premier's managers is included in hourly rate
  • “Team Approach” between Argus' staff and Premier's overseas staff creates a seamless, fully integrated solution

IMPACT ON STAFF

• Absolutely Confidential Pilot is Implemented in Order to Clearly Establish that a Premier Offshore solution is warranted for the Client.

  Model for Client:

  • Premier's pilot Transition is specifically designed to be seamless to the client's organization
  • Premier is sensitive to minimizing any unnecessary alarm with non-management staff

• Pilot Project Communication to Staff:

  • Anticipate no or very few layoffs- Premier's staff acts as an extended team of client (again, no voluntary attrition to date in current program)
  • Project allows for openings created by natural attrition to be competently filled with dedicated, experienced, trained staff from Premier rather than temps
  • The client's experience in growth in existing clients and new clients will allow for additional work to be assigned to Premier
  • If layoffs become necessary, Client pays four weeks severance
  • Created new positions overseas with scanning
  • Project assures new better-paying positions for the client's account managers that work more closely with Argus' clients
  • Argus will funnel some of savings realized by utilizing Premier's services into new modular furniture for staff

• Feedback to date:

  • Mostly positive
  • No resignations or employee/staff problems to date