Analytics for better margins

ATLANTA, US: With a focus on margin improvement and preparing for the implications of healthcare reform, MultiCare, a large integrated health system based in Tacoma, Wash., has chosen to implement MedAssets’ Service Line Analytics solution and Clinical Cost Management consulting services to help it build best practice cost-reduction and physician engagement strategies.

As a press release adds, Service Line Analytics will give MultiCare access to actionable data and business intelligence along with leading change management consulting that is proven to engage physicians in the cost-reduction process. The solution links reimbursement, supply cost, supply utilization, clinical factors and other resource utilization data by physician and MS-DRG, allowing providers to gain visibility into how variations in resource utilization by patient mix affect overall cost and clinical outcomes.

Through Clinical Cost Management consulting, MedAssets experts will work with the healthcare system’s administrative, purchasing and clinical staffs, using real clinical and cost data to identify savings opportunities within the organization on physician preference items (PPI).

MultiCare currently uses MedAssets revenue cycle management solutions for charge and revenue integrity, as well as patient estimates. MulitCare has been a customer since 2004.

MultiCare is an integrated health organization comprised of four hospitals, numerous primary care and urgent care clinics, multi-specialty centers and many other services. MultiCare is the Tacoma area's largest provider of health care services.

“As healthcare costs continue to rise and with healthcare reform changes coming, we needed to do more to control our clinical and supply costs system-wide,” said Vince Schmitz, chief financial officer at MultiCare. “MedAssets solutions will help us engage our physicians in the cost-reduction process and better manage our operating margins ahead of healthcare reform changes.”