HealthWare Systems Signs Agreement with Cardon Healthcare

Cardon Healthcare Network is a leading service provider of third-party eligibility and other specialized accounts receivable recovery services. Their customer service and operational expertise coupled with our technology represent an unbeatable combination. CHN has partnered with HealthWare Systems to deliver UltimateID™ to healthcare organizations. CHN will market and sell this solution as an extension to its existing eligibility services.

Excerpt from Inside CHN (Cardon Company Newsletter)

Inside CHN staff had the opportunity recently to discuss the Cardon “service + technology” concept with Steve Gruner, CEO of HealthWare Systems and developer of Cardon’s UltimateID and in-house software.

Inside CHN: HealthWare Systems has been a leading innovator in the healthcare software technology arena for some time. What attracted you to Cardon, which was primarily a ‘hands on’ service oriented company?

Gruner: Well, we always knew there was a big market that involved hospitals that needed technology tools as well as the services and know-how to go along with them. What good does it do to have a 400 horsepower engine if you only use half of it? Lots of hospitals were making that mistake: paying big money for tools they never properly used. That’s what we wanted to address. We wanted someone that could take this service/technology concept and run with it. We knew Cardon by reputation and through trade shows, etc. We knew they had strong business ethics and a great market position. Cardon was already completely committed to building and refining software tools that would accelerate its services. It was pretty clear from the start that the right chemistry was there and that we could design products that would not only fit Cardon’s needs but would create additional business opportunities for them.

Inside CHN: What industry trends are creating conditions ripe for this particular opportunity?

Gruner: Hospitals are facing tremendous political and legal pressure regarding their charity and self-pay billing and collection policies — especially “non-profit” hospitals that could lose their tax exempt status. Regulations like HIPAA run up huge costs for hospitals without contributing a dime to revenue. More companies and individuals are dropping their insurance because of the cost, so hospitals are seeing their financial options narrow. The financial pressures and strains are creating staff cutbacks and turnover. If I was a weather forecaster, I would call this a “perfect storm” for Cardon’s initiative.

Inside CHN: What will Cardon’s new technology enhanced services allow Cardon to do that couldn’t be done before?

Gruner: When you automate the capture and delivery of information throughout the revenue cycle, you reduce the manual component that is far and away the most costly ingredient in the process. Increased efficiency will mean that you “redefine” what is and isn’t a marginal account. If it costs you pennies to process an account instead of dollars, guess what? You can do more than you ever could for your clients without making your life miserable and unproductive. All of this fits perfectly with the changing conditions hospitals are facing.

Inside CHN: So why don’t hospitals use similar technology to do all this themselves?

Gruner: Technology is only part of the answer, and it is not the most important at that. Healthcare is, by definition, a people business, and the quality of human interaction is the essential part of any people business. So the key is to adopt technology solutions that enhance rather than reduce the quality of essential human interaction. There are a lot of software companies that claim to have the “total revenue solution.” But software companies aren’t service companies. They understand service issues at the technology level but not at the human interaction level. I am sure that it is frustrating for them to see their wonderful tools misused or underused. The other side of that coin is that hospital people are not technology gurus. They learn enough to get by, and that’s about where it ends. In kind of an ironic way, when a hospital buys its way out of problems with technology, it is — as it develops in practice — usually paying the most for the features its staff will seldom if ever use. This is the enormous attraction of the Cardon services + solution. The hospital actually ends up getting people who know what needs to be done and how to do it at the highest possible level.