Craneware's Pharmacy ChargeLink® Version 3 Helps Improve Margins and Control Costs

New Version Improves Visibility into Drug Spending, Preferences, Pricing and Coding

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Oct 12, 2010, 09:30 ET

ATLANTA, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthcare organizations can now gain unmatched visibility into their business processes and new efficiencies to help contain rising drug costs, ensure compliance, and improve financial performance with new functionality in Pharmacy ChargeLink® Version 3 from Craneware, Inc. (AIM: CRW.L; OTC: CRWRY), the leader in automated revenue integrity solutions for U.S. healthcare.

"Pharmacy revenue leakage costs hospitals millions," said Keith Neilson, CEO of Craneware. "Constant changes to formularies, prices and reimbursement policies make it tough for hospitals to maintain current, complete information on the data needed for drug reimbursement. Craneware recognized the industry's need for software that would provide business process visibility and analysis – from drug purchasing all the way to reimbursement – to connect these siloed areas."

To meet this need, Craneware introduced Pharmacy ChargeLink – the industry's first effective solution of its kind – in January 2008. "As we now introduce the advanced Version 3, clients' results show Pharmacy ChargeLink remains unmatched in helping healthcare organizations integrate their pharmacy spend information with billing to ensure correct pricing, accurate coding and optimal reimbursement," commented Neilson. New Version 3 capabilities enable hospitals to better account for drug expenditures, comply with changing payor requirements, prioritize work according to its potential financial impact, and quantify organizational value of physician drug preferences to support cost-saving conversations, among key benefits.

Pharmaceuticals are among the top costs for healthcare organizations. As drug costs continue to increase, and new reimbursement models emerge, hospitals using Pharmacy ChargeLink have the necessary, superior visibility into accurate drug costs and charges. This visibility, combined with actionable analysis, enables hospitals to implement industry best practices for business process efficiency, resulting in improved financial performance and compliance. Pharmacy ChargeLink helps healthcare organizations:

control costs,
increase transparency,
optimize reimbursement,
ensure adequate margins,
maintain defensible pricing consistent with internal policy and CMS regulation,
capture revenue they are currently missing due to absent, incomplete or incorrect pharmacy data in their billing systems,
identify processes that prevent better charge capture,
increase operational efficiency through industry best practices, and
minimize compliance risk.

Advanced capabilities in the new Version 3, enable healthcare organizations to:

Link inpatient/outpatient data with an expanded payor mix to help hospitals prioritize their time on areas most likely to yield financial improvement.
Use filters to identify drugs in the chargemaster with missing or incorrect units of measure.
Compare what their facilities pay for identical or dispensing-equivalent drugs using the Corporate Cost Analysis function to identify the lowest cost paid within the system.
Monitor drug costs with expanded benchmarking – in addition to the existing Average Sales Price and Average Wholesale Price benchmarks, new benchmarks include: Wholesale Acquisition Cost, Suggested Retail Price, Direct Price from the manufacturer, and the ability to compare facility drug costs against average-cost benchmarking from other Craneware clients who agree to share this information.
Facilitate the challenge of reporting the National Drug Code on Medicaid claims.
Make even more exact comparisons of the purchased volume of a drug and the volume that was subsequently billed, by grouping drugs and their equivalents in the new Generic Volume Reconciliation feature.
Determine how to bill appropriately for drugs that are often self-administered and using determinations established by the hospital's local Medicare contractor.
Quantify the true cost of physician preferences across the organization in support of conversation on cost savings from dispensing equivalents.

Since the introduction of Pharmacy ChargeLink, many clients have found hundreds of thousands – even millions – of dollars in otherwise missed revenue. For example, Parkview Health, an eight-hospital system in Fort Wayne, Ind., identified an annual gross revenue variance in excess of $10 million using the volume reconciliation feature.

"Today, healthcare organizations need dependable partners to help ensure a strong foundation of revenue integrity and prevent revenue leakage," Neilson said. "Craneware has an 11-year history of successfully partnering and providing solutions that achieve sustainable improvements in revenue integrity. From our development of the industry's original chargemaster management software, through today's innovations like Pharmacy ChargeLink Version 3, Craneware remains committed to our clients' financial performance improvement by innovating solutions that support the industry in strategically transforming business processes toward higher efficiency."

To further promote sustainable improvement in healthcare financial performance, Craneware is running the educational campaign, "Stop the Leakage," which provides industry best practices, success stories and in-depth white papers. One white paper, "Ensuring Proper Reimbursement for Hospital-administered Drugs," is based on recent research and explores the problems underlying pharmacy-based revenue leakage. To download a copy of the white paper, visit stoptheleakage.com.

View the social media release at http://pitch.pe/94218.

About Craneware

Craneware (AIM: CRW.L; OTC: CRWRY) is the leader in automated revenue integrity solutions that improve financial performance for healthcare organizations. Craneware's market-driven, SaaS solutions help hospitals and other healthcare providers more effectively price, charge and code for services and supplies associated with patient care. This optimizes reimbursement, increases operational efficiency and minimizes compliance risk. By partnering with Craneware, clients achieve the visibility required to identify, address and prevent revenue leakage. To learn more, visit craneware.com.

SOURCE Craneware