Background
Allina Health is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of illness and enhancing the greater health of individuals, families and communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. A not-for-profit health care system, Allina Health cares for patients from beginning to end-of-life through its family of Clinics, Hospitals, and Specialty Service providers.
Challenge
Allina receives electronic payments and remittance notices from a variety of sources. Payments are received from a multitude of payers including: Patients, Large Multi-National insurances, Regional Insurances, Federal Government Programs (Medicare/Medicaid) and State Programs. Payments are also often co-mingled; representing reimbursement for more than one billing entity or claims from more than one practice management system. Allina needed a way to ensure that what was being received and deposited (receipts) was actually being posted to patient’s accounts and credited to the appropriate business unit (revenue recognition). In addition, there was a desire to become more efficient by eliminating many of the manual processes that existed around cash application and reconciliation
Solution
Allina worked with Sotaware to gather functional requirements, plan, design, build, test, and deploy a cash reconciliation solution. The system helped track and reconcile ~ $500M in cash monthly, allowing for the re-allocation of more than 20 full-time employees, saving $1.5M annually. Equally important, it has allowed for the quick realization and application of cash receipts.
Result
Allina Health can now track payments from patients, insurance companies, government agencies and all other partners in order to provide immediate data regarding unposted receipts and uncorrelated payer remittances. Allina is also able to facilitate total cash reconciliation between its central bank, practice management systems, and it’s general ledger each month. A process that used to take weeks to complete now can be completed in a matter of hours.