The United States Patent and Trademark Office Grants TransUnion Patent for Healthcare...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office Grants TransUnion Patent for
Healthcare Financing Method
Helps defray the cost of treating the uninsured through automated eligibility
by matching more patients to entitlement and assistance programs

CHICAGO, March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- TransUnion announced today that its
healthcare financing method was granted United States Patent No. 7,333,937 on
Feb. 19, 2008 for the Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform (HRCP). HRCP is an
ASP-based technology platform that determines, in real time, patient
eligibility for financial assistance at point of registration.
This business method patent utilizes healthcare financial aid information
associated with federal, state, and local assistance plans to help
appropriately determine both patient eligibility for assistance and patient
responsibility for costs related to medical treatment.
"This patent solidifies TransUnion as a market leader in marrying
information and technology to address a critical business issue our healthcare
customers are facing in this financially challenging market -- escalating bad
debt," said Rod Bazzani, executive vice president of healthcare for
TransUnion. "Our proprietary business method allows hospitals to utilize an
automated and sophisticated rules-based decision engine to ensure their
patients are best served while ensuring all necessary guidelines to maximize
financial aid are met."
With this newly patented technology, hospitals can utilize a web-based
system to electronically input patient data at the time of service that is
cross-referenced with credit-sourced information to determine patient
eligibility for all appropriate benefit sources, including hospital-specific
charity programs. The software queries federal and state programs including
Medicaid, Victims of Crime, Emtala Section 1011 Reimbursement, Ryan White
Program as well as grant, foundation, and charity care programs, all of which
offer healthcare financial assistance for qualifying applicants.
The patented technology instantaneously performs calculations based on
patient information and eligibility requirements to pre-qualify applicants and
their family members for optimal financial assistance programs. Patient
demographic information is pre-populated on all enrollment forms; ready for
immediate printing, signature and submission.
Additional benefits of HRCP include:
-- Verifies patient identity, insurance eligibility, and inaccuracies
from self reported data.
-- Identifies opportunities to assist patients at the time of service due
to front-end integration within registration system.
-- Tracks, stores and provides audit-ready documentation of charity care.
-- Determines patient status for each hospital visit to eliminate the
possibility of providing charity care to those who no longer qualify
while easily validating those that are still eligible.
-- Reduces the potential for quarterly/year-end financial surprises and
provides hospitals the ability to modify charity policies during the
year to stay compliant with federal, state, and local guidelines,
specifically the new IRS required Form 990, Schedule H.
-- Pursues multiple financial assistance opportunities concurrently,
providing significant labor savings to hospitals; reducing staff time
spent gathering data and filling out forms.

About TransUnion
As a global leader in credit and information management, TransUnion
creates advantages for millions of people around the world by gathering,
analyzing and delivering information. For businesses, TransUnion helps improve
efficiency, manage risk, reduce costs and increase revenue by delivering
comprehensive data and advanced analytics and decisioning. For consumers,
TransUnion provides the tools, resources and education to help manage their
credit health and achieve their financial goals. Through these and other
efforts, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies worldwide. Founded
in 1968 and headquartered in Chicago, TransUnion employs more than 2,600
employees in more than 25 countries on five continents.
http://www.transunion.com/business
SOURCE TransUnion

Dave Blumberg of TransUnion, +1-312-985-3059, dblumbe@transunion.com