Quovadx and SearchAmerica Join to Deliver Real-Time Patient Verification and Financial Risk Assessment Information

Business Wire, Nov 17, 2004

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. & MINNEAPOLIS -- QDX(TM) Cash Accelerator Combined with Payment Advisor(TM) from SearchAmerica, Increases Patient Verification Options to Speed Payment and Help Reduce Bad Debt

Quovadx, Inc. (Nasdaq: QVDX), a global platform software and vertical solutions company, today announced a strategic alliance with SearchAmerica, a provider of online demographic validation and financial risk assessment tools for healthcare organizations. Quovadx and SearchAmerica will jointly market and sell an integrated solution designed to enable healthcare organizations to use accurate and pertinent consumer data to verify patient identity, addresses and insurance eligibility and make a prediction of payment, under the QDX(TM) Cash Accelerator brand.

As patient registration processes rely on self-reported or subjective patient/guarantor information, healthcare facilities are vulnerable to data input errors, outdated or mistaken information and fraud. QDX Cash Accelerator from Quovadx helps healthcare organizations reduce administrative costs and improve the consistency, accuracy and efficiency of insurance eligibility and benefit assessment. QDX Cash Accelerator allows customers to check eligibility and benefits through an automated system, eliminating countless personnel hours spent on the telephone and reducing time spent re-entering patient insurance data. In addition, QDX Cash Accelerator functions as a single integrated user interface for real-time access to over 2,000 commercial and government payers and multiple transaction types, eliminating the use of disparate payment systems and manual insurance eligibility checks.

With added functionality from SearchAmerica's Payment Advisor solution, QDX Cash Accelerator from Quovadx provides healthcare organizations and Integrated Delivery Network (IDNs) greater access to comprehensive data resources that can help increase the likelihood and speed of payment. The Payment Advisor solution, including functionality from SearchAmerica's Registration Solution(TM), which provides patient demographic verification, automatically attempts to provide a prediction of payment using proprietary modeling tools that help determine the likelihood of receiving payment for each consumer. Each patient is classified into assigned financial categories and the Payment Advisor solution works towards identifying suggested next steps in accordance with these assigned patient categories and underlying business rules -- facilitating the optimum means by which patient payment may occur.

"The added functionality from SearchAmerica, combined with the power of the QDX Cash Accelerator solution, will give QUOVADX(TM) customers and new joint customers access to the most accurate and comprehensive verification tools, helping them reduce risks related to errors and fraud via one standardized and automated registration and eligibility solution," said Daniel Johnson, President and CEO, SearchAmerica. "This integrated solution will result in fewer manual entry errors, fewer duplication of records, improved patient record management, a reduction of returned mail and ultimately increased cash flow and reduced bad debt write-offs."

SearchAmerica's Payment Advisor offers the most accurate demographic consumer information, leveraging all major credit bureaus in addition to secondary data sources -- SearchAmerica is able to provide unparalled accuracy in consumer verification because it uses multiple sources of data, including local, regional and national. SearchAmerica's proprietary SearchSmart(TM) and SearchTrack(TM) technology intelligently allows customers to tap into the most accurate database available, based on a number of factors, and retain the relevant information to process the data faster and more accurately moving forward.

New capabilities from Payment Advisor will allow QDX Cash Accelerator users to:

--Increase the speed of contact, reducing the average days in accounts receivable

--Decrease collection agency referrals

--Reduce write-offs from bad debt

--Increase the efficiency of accounts receivable and collections personnel

--Improve customer service and patient relations

"By partnering with other best-in-breed technology providers who also focus in the healthcare industry, Quovadx continues to demonstrate its commitment to improving and enhancing the products and services we offer to our healthcare customers," said Afshin Cangarlu, president, Integration Solutions division, Quovadx. "We believe that the SearchAmerica and Quovadx combined solution best addresses a critical business need for healthcare organizations by helping them streamline processes and reduce costs -- while allowing them to remain focused on delivering the highest quality of patient care."

In addition to the Payment Advisor solution, SearchAmerica and Quovadx plan to include capabilities of Charity Advisor(TM) from SearchAmerica. Charity Advisor will assess a patient's eligibility for charity care and/or uninsured discounts. Charity Advisor can identify who qualifies for charity/uninsured discounts based on the hospital's credit and collection policy. It can populate and print out the appropriate forms and/or work lists for easy identification. This can be integrated into the hospital's pre-registration/registration screens, allowing for "non-discriminatory" compliance to the internal credit and collection policy.