Back to Archived News

The United States Patent and Trademark Office Grants TransUnion Patent for Healthcare Financing Method

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Chicago, IL -- TransUnion announced today that its healthcare financing method was granted United States Patent No. 7,333,937 on Feb. 19, 2008 for the Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform (HRCP). HRCP is an ASP-based technology platform that determines, in real time, patient eligibility for financial assistance at point of registration.

This business method patent utilizes healthcare financial aid information associated with federal, state, and local assistance plans to help appropriately determine both patient eligibility for assistance and patient responsibility for costs related to medical treatment.

"This patent solidifies TransUnion as a market leader in marrying information and technology to address a critical business issue our healthcare customers are facing in this financially challenging market -- escalating bad debt," said Rod Bazzani, executive vice president of healthcare for TransUnion. "Our proprietary business method allows hospitals to utilize an automated and sophisticated rules-based decision engine to ensure their patients are best served while ensuring all necessary guidelines to maximize financial aid are met."

With this newly patented technology, hospitals can utilize a web-based system to electronically input patient data at the time of service that is cross-referenced with credit-sourced information to determine patient eligibility for all appropriate benefit sources, including hospital-specific charity programs. The software queries federal and state programs including Medicaid, Victims of Crime, Emtala Section 1011 Reimbursement, Ryan White Program as well as grant, foundation, and charity care programs, all of which offer healthcare financial assistance for qualifying applicants.

The patented technology instantaneously performs calculations based on patient information and eligibility requirements to pre-qualify applicants and their family members for optimal financial assistance programs. Patient demographic information is pre-populated on all enrollment forms; ready for immediate printing, signature and submission.

Additional benefits of HRCP include:

Verifies patient identity, insurance eligibility, and inaccuracies from self reported data.
Identifies opportunities to assist patients at the time of service due to front-end integration within registration system.
Tracks, stores and provides audit-ready documentation of charity care.
Determines patient status for each hospital visit to eliminate the possibility of providing charity care to those who no longer qualify while easily validating those that are still eligible.
Reduces the potential for quarterly/year-end financial surprises and provides hospitals the ability to modify charity policies during the year to stay compliant with federal, state, and local guidelines, specifically the new IRS required Form 990, Schedule H.
Pursues multiple financial assistance opportunities concurrently, providing significant labor savings to hospitals; reducing staff time spent gathering data and filling out forms.

About TransUnion

As a global leader in credit and information management, TransUnion creates advantages for millions of people around the world by gathering, analyzing and delivering information. For businesses, TransUnion helps improve efficiency, manage risk, reduce costs and increase revenue by delivering comprehensive data and advanced analytics and decisioning. For consumers, TransUnion provides the tools, resources and education to help manage their credit health and achieve their financial goals. Through these and other efforts, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies worldwide. Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Chicago, TransUnion employs more than 2,600 employees in more than 25 countries on five continents. http://www.transunion.com/business.

Back to Archived News