PHNS launches new "24/7 Claims Acceleration" services for U.S. hospitals

PHNS Inc. announced its new "24/7 Claims Acceleration" services for U.S. hospitals using a team of Chinese business analysts trained by PHNS and China-based IT and business process outsourcing provider iSoftStone. The Chinese business analysts are located in iSoftStone's Global Delivery Center in Tianjin, China. All of this new team have bachelor's or master's-equivalent degrees, and have completed months of specialized PHNS' hospital claims resolution training, facilitated by specialists from both PHNS and iSoftStone.

PHNS' new "24/7 Claims Acceleration" services help expedite claims resolution for hospitals by taking advantage of the time differential between China and the U.S. (China is 14 hours ahead): after PHNS' U.S. Patient Account Representatives go home at night, new claims are sent to iSoftStone via secure network where iSoftStone's Chinese business analysts perform online statusing of claims and document claim status in PHNS' workflow/work listing system, which is then used by PHNS' U.S. Patient Account Representatives to expedite the resolution of claims when they return to work the next morning.

"PHNS is very excited to offer this innovative new 24/7 service that accelerates claims resolution and cash flow for U.S. hospitals by utilizing the skilled Chinese business analysts provided by iSoftStone," said Dan Allison, CEO of PHNS. "iSoftStone and PHNS worked very closely together during the past year to select and train the initial group of Chinese business analysts that are dedicated to provide services to PHNS, and iSoftStone has become an effective and trusted service provider for PHNS," added Allison.

"Utilizing an overseas office allows us to virtually become an around-the-clock operation," said Ron Kelley, who leads PHNS' revenue management services. "This approach can help us speed up the resolution of accounts receivable for our clients, allowing transaction processing and online or data-entry activities to occur overnight. The next morning, our U.S.-based patient accounting professionals can begin issuing appeals, making follow-up calls to insurance companies and working problem accounts more rapidly," added Kelley. "The entire process is also extremely secure. All of the infrastructure and controls iSoftStone has built to ensure HIPAA-compliant safeguarding of data are more secure than what many U.S. hospitals utilize."

"iSoftStone is very pleased to be PHNS's exclusive partner providing these unique hospital claims resolution services to PHNS using iSoftStone's established China-based delivery platform," said TW Liu, Chairman and CEO of iSoftStone. "This partnership is an innovative combination of PHNS' sophisticated U.S. hospital revenue management services and iSoftStone's efficient and cost-effective business process outsourcing (BPO) platform that uses time zone differences to create a virtual 24/7 service," added Liu.