Case Study: West Virginia University Medicine

About the Client

West Virginia University Health System, with 13 hospitals (and growing!) is located in Morgantown, WV and an Uniontown,PA. Services include the physicians, specialists, and sub-specialists of the West Virginia University School of Medicine; the affiliated schools of the WVU Health Sciences Center; four community hospitals; three critical access hospitals; and a children’s hospital, all anchored by a 690-bed academic medical center that offers tertiary and quaternary care. West Virginia University Health System chose Healthfuse to help manage the organization’s complex revenue cycle operations across the enterprise, and to help improve vendor performance, reduce costs and maximize reimbursements.

Since engaging Healthfuse, we know exactly how our vendors are performing and how they can improve over time. We’ve increased outsourcer performance by more than 30% since we started.

Leah Klinke, Assistant Vice President
Hospital Revenue Cycle | West Virginia University Health System

Challenge

WVUM had more than a dozen long-term vendor partnerships across its vast health system but believed it was receiving little return on investment from those relationships. An initial assessment discovered vendor over invoicing and most outsourced accounts were not being worked per best practice standards. West Virginia University Health System also identified bolt-on technologies that needed to be sourced and replaced.

Solution

WVUM engaged Healthfuse to build its Vendor Management Office (VMO) to serve as a centralized resource to oversee vendor performance and enforce accountability. The VMO worked with each vendor to update processes, WVUM utilization, and expectations. Reporting was established to monitor account-level activity, collection performance, and patient experience.

Results

With Healthfuse, West Virginia University Health System achieved improved transparency that created confidence and trust in the vendor relationships. Together, they designed a new vendor strategy to include automated processes, enhanced vendor work queues, and streamlined vendor communication.

To date, Healthfuse has delivered:

Collections Improvements

$16.2M

  • in cash-factor improvement after 3 years

$250K

  • recovered from invoice disputes

30%

  • reduction in self-pay collection costs

Cost Savings

270%

  • increase in self-pay liquidation

10X

  • increase in outsourcer performance

2X

  • doubled net liquidation and cash recoveries for select vendors