Dive Brief:
- Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center plans to outsource its billing services to revenue cycle management company nThrive, effective July 1, the Triad Business Journal reports.
- The move, which affects between 630 and 650 jobs, will transfer certain functions underpinning billing at Wake Forest Baptist and Cornerstone Health Care outpatient clinics and hospital outpatient departments to Alpharetta, GA-based nThrive.
- The shift will allow Wake Forest Medical to focus more resources on clinical, academic and innovation efforts, Charles Vignos, vice president of corporate revenue and managed care, told TBJ via email.
Dive Insight:
Under the agreement, nThrive will take over billing services and provide training and education for Wake Forest Baptist’s professional billing staff. The Winston-Salem, NC, teaching hospital plans to identify billing employees who will be shifted to nThrive by May 1. Those staffers will continue to work at Wake Forest Baptist and Cornerstone, but as nThrive employees.
Wake Forest Baptist is the latest in a line of providers to outsource billing and collections to a third party, with the aim of improving billing efficiency and reducing costs. In September, Quest Diagnostics announced it was turning over its billing services to UnitedHealth Group. As part of that deal, Quest agreed to be the primary vendor for certain screening tests in employer health plans offered by UnitedHealth Group.
Wake Forest Baptist reported revenues of $2.4 billion and operating income of $63.6 million for fiscal year 2016, ended June 30, 2016. Its Cornerstone multispecialty practice, acquired in May 2016, contributed $9.7 million in the fourth quarter. The 1,004-bed integrated health system saw a 9% year-over-year growth in case mix adjusted equivalent discharges and 5% increase in clinic visits.