Four SearchAmerica Clients Featured in March Cover Story of hfm magazine

Business Wire, March 21, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Cover Story in hfm magazine titled "Finding the Missing Pieces for Payment", features four clients of SearchAmerica, Inc. The clients include Allina Hospitals & Clinics, Novant Health, Sutter Health and Parkland Health & Hospital System, Dallas.

The article discusses the topic of automated tools and the fact that they are reducing costs of collections and decreasing bad debt for a growing number of hospitals. "We've probably saved about $4 million in gross charges over a two-year period," says Tom Gavinski, vice president, revenue cycle, Allina Hospital & Clinics, in the article. "A large portion of that savings is in the reduced cost to collect payment."

The need for better patient financial and demographic information poses a significant challenge for hospitals nationwide. More than 45 million Americans are without health insurance, and an estimated 16 million are considered underinsured - and this number is rising.

According to Gavinski, "the use of automated tools to expedite this (the pre-registration and registration) process has enabled us to reduce costs on the back end simply by having better information up front."

In the past few years, automated tools have emerged that are helping hospitals more effectively identify patients who are uninsured or underinsured, improve collection processes, and reduce write-offs from bad debts.

One tool used by each of the four health systems featured in the article is a tool that electronically validates demographics information. Another automated tool enables hospitals to quickly identify which patients qualify for their charity care programs or uninsured discounts.

"The search takes less than 30 seconds," says Margie Souza, regional director, central billing office, Sutter Health, whose system has used an automated charity care tool since October 2005. "You can use it at the front end, in registration, or at the back end, in the billing office." Souza concluded by saying in the article "we were able to reclassify several million dollars in care as charity care."

To read the article in its entirety, please visit www.searchamerica.com.

hfm magazine is published by the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

SearchAmerica, Inc. is the industry leader in demographic validation, prediction of payment and automated charity/Medicaid processing. SearchAmerica provides a complete range of real-time, integrated products that are used at hundreds of healthcare facilities nationwide, including many of the largest healthcare systems in the country. SearchAmerica's quality and accuracy is "best in class" and providers benefit from their smarter data which produces a healthier bottom line. Documented case studies prove a significant return on investment, consistent with favorable public relations.