Emdeon's Assistant, Claim Master solutions earn HFMA Peer Reviewed designation

Emdeon Inc. (NYSE: EM), a leading provider of healthcare revenue and payment cycle management solutions, today announced that its automated patient eligibility and benefits verification tool, Emdeon® Assistant™, and web-based billing management solution, Emdeon Claim Master®, have earned the Peer Reviewed designation of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). The HFMA Peer Reviewed designation places these Emdeon solutions on a short list of prestigious products that have been proven effective by industry expert volunteers and independent HFMA staff.

All products presented for the certification must meet predetermined standards as established by HFMA in areas such as product effectiveness, quality, overall value and customer support to earn the "Peer Reviewed by HFMA" designation. Emdeon Assistant, which has received HFMA's Peer Review status for three consecutive years, can help save time and money by providing one interface to manage claims for virtually all government and commercial payers from start to finish. Emdeon Claim Master, an easy-to-use web-based interface that allows hospitals, health systems and provider practices to manage their entire billing process across all facilities, received the HFMA Peer Reviewed status for the first time this year.

"Receiving HFMA Peer Reviewed status for our solutions validates our commitment to offer superior products in the healthcare marketplace," said George Lazenby, chief executive officer of Emdeon. "Ultimately, our solutions allow providers the ability to better manage the complexities of the revenue payment cycle from the initial patient encounter through third-party reimbursement and final patient payment."

Emdeon Assistant simplifies patient registration through real-time eligibility and benefit verifications and interfaces with most existing patient registration systems. By accessing a wide range of information from government and commercial payers via Emdeon's healthcare revenue and payment cycle network, Emdeon Assistant helps providers determine a patient's eligibility status, copay, deductible and other important information. Emdeon Assistant also verifies patients' addresses and key demographic information, thus helping providers maintain contact with patients after they leave the office for follow-up care, billing and other communications.  

In addition to facilitating the management of healthcare providers' entire billing processes across all facilities, Emdeon Claim Master employs unique tools to aid decision support, provide dashboard snapshots of claims inventory, manage workflow and prioritize resources. Emdeon Claim Master also provides electronic submission capability for Workers' Compensation and Automobile medical claims to enrolled payers and enables attachments such as medical reports and documentation to be submitted electronically.

"In the admitting and registration areas, Emdeon Assistant has changed the way that we do business," said Carol Plato Nicosia the administrative director of corporate business services for Martin Memorial Health Systems. "In the past, we used to go to the Internet, look things up and then have to re-key the eligibility information into our mainframe. Today, Emdeon Assistant provides us with all of the information that we need, and it is automatically posted back into our mainframe system. Emdeon Assistant has not only made us more efficient, but it has also helped us with patient communications because we have the information we need instantly, which enables us to discuss payment situations up-front."

Commenting on Emdeon Claim Master, Nicosia continued, "Emdeon Claim Master is not only our tool for submitting claims, it also allows us to make any edits needed prior to submission. Emdeon Claim Master ultimately helps us to reduce denials and get paid more quickly."

Emdeon will be exhibiting during the HFMA 2010 ANI conference in Las Vegas June 21-22, 2010, and demonstrating Emdeon Assistant, Emdeon Claim Master and other solutions at booth 525.