Integration
Creating something from nothing! For many healthcare facilities nationwide, bankruptcies are written off as an asset not worth the effort. After meeting with over 100 hospitals there was one consensus, bankruptcies aren’t worth much, maybe a few percent. We know that’s not true and in fact recoveries can be as high as 25%.
A proactive bankruptcy strategy is a key to the financial health of every hospital and healthcare facility. Our mission is to help our facilities create efficiencies in the collection of bankruptcy dollars. That involves a three step process: Integration, monitoring and recovery. Limited resources are required on the part of our facilities as the system is fully automated and secure. Once fully integrated, all data is easily accessible and the process is monitored by VHS to insure all bankruptcies are properly tracked.
Meet Aaron Johnson
As the head of the Integration Team at Value Healthcare Services, Aaron Johnson has developed a 9 step process that is simple and seamless. Our goals are the following:
A. Create a long term relationship and viable solution that will provide sustainable recoveries.
B. Limit the IT resources as part of the initial implementation phase.
C. Utilize the US Federal Bankruptcy System to realize recoveries, requiring no recovery efforts.
Let’s run through the 9 Steps as presented by Aaron:
1. Capturing All Bankruptcy Case Notices
a. This is an important first step, to know when a patient has declared bankruptcy.
b. Our automated system will immediately identify when bankruptcies occur.
c. VHS can receive court notices on behalf of your facility.
d. VHS can also scan your eligible account inventory on a daily basis.
2. Consolidation of all Notices/Transmission of Information to Healthcare Facility
a. Regardless of methodology, consolidation is done into one consumable data file that can be returned to your organization daily.
b. VHS can return the data in any format (e.g. XML, CSV, etc).
c. Transmission is done is a safe & secure manner.
3. Accounts Statused for Bankruptcy
a. Once the data is ingested, a number of events will likely trigger:
b. Account status will be changed to bankruptcy.
c. If the account is out for 3rd party collections, a recall notice will need to be issued.
d. A placement file is prepared (again, whatever file format works best for your IT team).
4. Validation of Bankruptcy Data
a. Once the placement file has been generated, you can place the data on VHS’s secure FTP site.
b. VHS will pick up the file and ingest it immediately.
5. Filing Proof of Claim (POC)
a. After VHS properly validates the required data, we prepare, produce and deliver the required legal form for the appropriate US Federal District Court site.
b. This primary document is known as a Proof of Claim or POC.
c. POC is the creditor’s right to declare to the US Trustee managing the BK case that the debt is still outstanding.
d. POCs need to be filed within a time period declared by the Trustee, usually 120 days, to claim the debt.
6. Monitoring for Patient Distributions
a. Once the proof of claim is filed, VHS waits for distributions made by the Trustee.
b. There is no patient contact by VHS or the Healthcare Facility.
c. Patients agree to the pay the Trustee who in turn by law must distribute all funds to creditors.
7. Setting of Payment Distributions Expectations
a. In a Chapter 13, the payment plan is monthly and monies can be distributed for up to 5 years.
b. In a Chapter 7, if there are assets to distribute, it will likely be consolidated into 1 or 2 single distributions, which could payout up to 10 years.
8. Distribution of Funds by Trustee
a. Distributions are done in order of creditor priority: secure, priority and unsecured.
b. Medical debt is unsecured.
c. Trustees will distribute only those funds which are in trust.
d. There are no NSFs.
9. Funds Remitted to the Healthcare Facility
a. We will verify once distribution funds are received at our secure and efficient payment processing center.
b. Funds are then remitted to your facility on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Easy, Seamless and Fully Automated
As you can see, the process is simple, efficient and overall low risk. In addition, our clients are able to review their accounts that have been placed via a secured web application called Secured Blossom.
For additional information or questions about our integration process, please contact me for a free consultation. On behalf of everyone on our team, we look forward to working with you.
Aaron Johnson
aaron@valuehealthcareservices.