A Medical Device Daily

MedAssets (Atlanta) has signed a long-term agreement to deliver its transformational revenue cycle solutions to Saint Barnabas Health Care System (SBHCS; West Orange, New Jersey), the largest integrated healthcare delivery system in New Jersey.

MedAssets will provide revenue cycle process reengineering services, powered by the continued deployment of web-based software and execution of ongoing primary accounts receivable billing and follow-up services.

This strategic partnership is focused on achieving improved financial metrics and best-practice revenue cycle operating processes across the SBHCS enterprise.

MedAssets' software-enabled tools and professional services will be used to manage and fundamentally transform SBHCS's revenue cycle processes. The scope of services to enhance revenue capture and improve payment accuracy will include, but not be limited to: accounts receivable billing and collection services; denial management and retrospective recovery services; and targeted consulting services to achieve best practice operations across the entire revenue cycle.

SBHCS is a non-profit healthcare delivery system comprised of six acute care and two children's hospitals, outpatient care centers, nursing and rehabilitation centers, an assisted living facility, a state-wide behavioral health network and comprehensive home care and hospice programs.

"Today's revenue cycle environment requires a holistic approach, and MedAssets offers an unparalleled combination of technology, professional services, and extended service center capabilities that can significantly impact client financial and business processes," said Robert Wright, president, Revenue Cycle Services, MedAssets. "We are excited about the importance of this expanded partnership, and look forward to delivering exceptional value to the Saint Barnabas Health Care System community."

In other agreements/contracts news;

• Volcano (San Diego) has entered into a non-exclusive, global resale agreement with Siemens Healthcare, a unit of Siemens (Erlangen, Germany). Under this agreement, Siemens will resell Volcano-branded s5i IVUS/FFR systems and accessories alongside Siemens' Artis family of X-ray systems.

The Volcano s5i intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and fractional flow reserve (FFR) system is compatible with Artis X-ray offerings. Volcano's s5i is a component-based system that is incorporated directly into the cath lab, allowing IVUS and FFR to be always on and always ready.

• iMedicor (Nanuet, New York) has entered into a partnership with PhoneTag, a provider of voicemail-to-text services and visual voicemail applications. Through this partnership, physicians and healthcare providers will have access to transcription services on their mobile device of choice. The basic service will be free to all users with a premium monthly subscription upgrade available.

iMedicor is the first free, HIPAA-compliant health information exchange portal, offering a technology solution that addresses the long-standing and widespread inability of disparate electronic medical records systems to communicate, collaborate and exchange medical records in a HIPAA-compliant environment.

• Quality Systems (Irvine, California) reported that its dental division — QSI Dental Division — has entered into a channel partner agreement with National Electronic Attachment (NEA; Norcross, Georgia), a provider in the transmission of supporting documentation and attachments for electronic claims to payers for reimbursement purposes.

QSI Dental Division will offer NEA's FastAttach functionality along with specific QSI software enhancements to its dental clients, affording them the opportunity to process electronic claims more quickly and efficiently. FastAttach enables dental offices to transmit attachments such as X-rays, periodontal charts, intra-oral pictures, narratives and explanations of benefits, via the Internet, to NEA's repository where insurance payers can then view them, in support of electronic claims eliminating the need to send these items to the payers via standard U.S. mail.

• Eliza (Beverly, Massachusetts), a provider of integrated healthcare communication strategies, has been chosen by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST; Chattanooga) to provide tailored, timely health and wellness information to its members through interactive, automated phone calls with the goal of driving healthy behavior change.

Eliza programs have proven to have a positive impact on health and wellbeing from driving more active lifestyles in children at risk for obesity to increasing participation in smoking cessation programs to boosting medication adherence rates and driving member retention.

• Premier Purchasing Partners (Charlotte, North Carolina) reported a new agreement for transfusion/blood donor services, equipment and supplies has been awarded to Pall (Port Washington, New York).

Effective Oct. 1, 2009, the agreement is available to acute care and continuum of care members of the Premier (San Diego) healthcare alliance.

• OmniComm Systems (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) reported that its electronic data capture (EDC) tool, TrialMaster, has been selected by Pleiad (Cambridge, Massachusetts), a contract research organization, to provide eClinical services to its customers. Pleiad's investment will provide it with the products and services to manage two upcoming studies investigating the use of ophthalmic medical devices. This partnership is expected to generate more than $1 million to OmniComm over the next few years.

• Zargis Medical (Stamford, Connecticut) has begun selling its Zargis Cardioscan heart sound analysis software, along with 3M's (St. Paul, Minnesota) just-released Bluetooth-enabled 3MLittmann Electronic Stethoscope Model 3200, as part of its previously reported exclusive multi-year global marketing alliance with 3M. This marketing alliance provides Zargis with a wide-range of global marketing and promotional opportunities along with exclusive rights to sell its products through the world-wide distribution network of the 3M Littmann brand.

Cardioscan heart sound analysis software is designed to support physicians in analyzing and interpreting cardiac sounds which can be signs of heart disease.