New Orleans-based Ochsner Health System received the Healthcare Business Summit's President's Award for improvements exceeding $50 million.
The award recognizes cumulative financial impact, along with financial impact based on percentage of savings, according to a news release.
In more than a decade, Ochsner has achieved documented savings of $50 million for improvements implemented across the organization's spend and revenue cycle segments.
"At Ochsner, we are all about partnership," Pete November, Ochsner's chief administrative officer, said in a prepared statement, noting that the initiatives in spend and revenue cycle with MedAssets helped his organization "maintain the highest quality of care at an affordable cost in this region."
Ochsner said it has implemented savings across the organization's supply chain as it has expanded its network — today managing or affiliated with 28 hospitals and more than 60 health centers across the Gulf South region. For instance, the organization teamed up with the spend and clinical resource management segment of MedAssets, which was recently acquired by Vizient.
Ochsner also founded the Southern Strategic Sourcing Partners purchasing coalition in 2014, also known as S3P. Today, S3P members are saving an average of 14 percent on physician preference items, based on more than $120 million in contract volume, according to a news release.
Additionally, Ochsner said long-standing initiatives have also helped to drive significant improvements across the organization's revenue cycle. In 2015, revenue cycle-related improvements resulted in $4.8 million, with a focus on collecting identified underpayments from payers and assistance with defensible price setting.
Entering 2016, Ochsner is expanding its MedAssets-Precyse Charge Capture expertise into Epic pre-bill work queues, while continuing to fine tune claims management to support the organization's best practice business operations. In total, this has resulted in $18 million of the overall lifetime savings of $50 million.
"We are thrilled to have worked with Ochsner to support their success over the past several years," said Amy Amick, president of revenue cycle management at MedAssets-Precyse. "We look forward to continuing our engagement with Ochsner as they evolve to optimize their financial performance under current reimbursement models, while preparing for the transition to accountable care and other value-based models in the future."
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