It means no hassle.  No user fees, no hardware, no hosting expenses.  Just a cost-effective, streamlined process that makes your organization run more efficiently so you can focus on your business.

We are invested in our customers’ success because when your company succeeds, so does ours. That’s what sets AdvanceClaim apart from our competitors’ traditional billing systems.  Let me explain how by contrasting our business model with that of a fictitious competitor.  Let’s call them…ZolTech.

Traditional billing systems like ZolTech’s make money by charging exorbitant fees for user licenses, training, and maintenance.  ZolTech has an incentive to increase the number of users running their billing system.  They don’t have an incentive to make a great product. That’s because ZolTech’s bottom line doesn’t depend on how well their system works for you.  As long as there are users, updates, and maintenance, ZolTech makes money – and they don’t care if you do or not.

With AdvanceClaim, there are no user license fees, no training fees, and no maintenance fees.  Instead, we charge a per-transaction fee for every claim.  And that’s it.  It’s a known cost that is proportionate to the number of claims you process.  Our incentive is to create the best billing solution for the complete patient cycle, from response to claim reimbursement.  We grow our business by working every day to ensure that AdvanceClaim will help our customers grow their businesses.  It’s win-win.

Before deciding to move towards a cloud-based, software-as-a-service tool like AdvanceClaim, you’ll no doubt have some questions about the deployment, and about the cloud itself. We decided to roll out AdvanceClaim as a SaaS implementation to deliver you the best service, easiest access, best security and lowest cost.

SaaS versus in-house

Mission-critical systems demand tight control, and for this reason, companies sometimes decide to retain those systems in-house. But does that approach really offer the sort of control you need? Not really, and here’s why. Your company has a mission—and it’s not information technology. Your main focus is on delivering life-saving EMS services, and you cannot afford to be distracted. In most cases, leaving information technology to the IT people who specialize in it will actually result in better control than if you were to do it yourself.

The best IT people tend to gravitate towards very specific service centers, third party providers, and of course, companies like AdvanceClaim. And because we have the best and brightest in the business, you can take full advantage of this talent without having to try to retain it in-house.

24×7 Oversight

Most small to midsize organizations do not have 24×7 IT support—it is costly to maintain round-the-clock staff, and unless you are a very large organization, you just don’t have the need for it. Nonetheless, your computer system needs to be operational at all times, and you certainly don’t want to walk into the office in the morning and find that your computer system is down. By using a third-party center and a software-as-a-service deployment, you can be reassured that your system is always available.

Automatic updates and patches

Internal IT staff spend an inordinate amount of time simply keeping programs up to date. Newer versions of software must be installed, often manually, on all systems; and occasional patches need to be rolled out as they are made available. All this takes time, and there is often a lag between the time the update is available, and when the internal staff actually finds time to roll it out.

Software-as-a-service operates by drawing against a common code base. This means that updates are automatically rolled out to all users, without having to take any action at all. New versions are available immediately—there’s no need to update anything. Just log on as usual, and the new version will be there for you.

Robust security

Software-as-a-service actually offers a higher level of security than most in-house installations—again, because the third-party service center that deploys the SaaS installation will be an ultra-secure data center with 24×7 staff, physical as well as virtual security, and state-of-the-art firewalls and intrusion prevention.

The cost advantage

It’s never all about the money, but costs are always a factor. Software-as-a-service eliminates the need for costly license fees, deployment of expensive hardware, and provisioning of internal staff. AdvanceClaim gives you the advantage of cost savings—along with excellent service, more features and unparalleled access.

Austin, TX – September 15, 2011 – Today, EMS billing solution provider AdvanceClaim is pleased to announce a distribution partnership with Penn Care, a leading supplier of emergency medical products (EMS) and services. Penn Care will be solely responsible for representation and sales of AdvanceClaim products in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, Indiana and Maryland. AdvanceClaim will continue implementing and supporting its web-based EMS billing and clearinghouse product nationwide as well as managing sales outside of Penn Care’s regional market.

“With its proven track record and excellent reputation within the emergency medical services community, Penn Care is an ideal partner for AdvanceClaim,” stated AdvanceClaim president and CEO John Dadey. “We are looking forward to a successful, long-term relationship with Penn Care as we continue to develop our product line.”

“AdvanceClaim’s clear technological expertise, streamlined process and very competitive pricing structure make it a perfect fit for our customers and the entire emergency services market … We believe that AdvanceClaim’s one-stop approach will be a great addition to our EMS offerings,” said Don Bloom, vice president of Penn Care.

About AdvanceClaim

AdvanceClaim is a web-based solution designed to save time and money for EMS providers and other first responders through its “one-stop-shop” approach to the patient claims and billing process. The AdvanceClaim application puts everything that an EMS organization could need during the course of a billing and claims cycle at its fingertips. Learn more about AdvanceClaim at www.advanceclaim.com.

About Penn Care

Penn Care Inc. is a leading supplier of medical products and services for people with life-threatening emergencies through its four major divisions: EMS Supplies, Emergency Vehicle Sales, Disaster Response Preparedness and Software Solutions. Visit www.penncare.net for more information.

Contact:
Sarah Cox
AdvanceClaim
800-868-9150
www.advanceclaim.com
sarah.cox@advanceclaim.com

Patient Access Management

• Easily capture, organize and authenticate patient data.
• Instantly verify billing, benefit and eligibility information.
• Access the most payer connections in the industry.

Claims Management

• Create faster, more efficient adjudication.
• Increase first-pass acceptance rates.
• Transparency to track claims every step of the way.

Remittance and Payment Management

• Receive 100% of third-party payments electronically for complete payment automation.
• More easily manage denied, inaccurate and underpaid claims.
• Streamline processes for easier correction and resubmission.
• Reveal opportunities for denial prevention.
• Access powerful reporting tools that improve staff productivity.

Payment Integrity Services

• Recover more than just easy-to-find debt.
• Discover outstanding balances on third party claims.
• Reduce days in Accounts Receivable.
• Reduce claim denial rates.
• Reduce bad debt write-offs.
• Identify problems to prevent future loss.

Patient Billing & Payment Management

• Deliver easy-to-understand patient statements.
• Accelerate patient payments.
• Integrate physical and electronic payment processes.
• Significantly reduce customer service calls.

AUSTIN, Texas, January 6, 2011 – AdvanceClaim today unveiled a Web-based solution designed to save time and money for EMS providers and other first responders through its “one-stop-shop” approach to the patient claims and billing process.

The AdvanceClaim Internet portal provides EMS departments a cost-effective means to access an integrated processing system that contains all the tools and information necessary to manage the complete patient cycle, from emergency response to claims reimbursement. The EMS Billing Software and Ambulance Billing Software bar has been raised considerably.

No longer is it necessary for municipal fire departments and EMS units or privately owned first-responder companies to access the Web sites of multiple stakeholders in a patient’s care, Medicare eligibility, billing and claims reimbursement, said John Dadey, AdvanceClaim president and co-founder.

“The AdvanceClaim application puts everything that an EMS organization could need during the course of a billing and claims cycle at its fingertips. One service gives them the ability to check eligibility and update medical insurance claim status for each patient, as well as monitor billing transactions and processing,” Dadey said. “This integrated patient data clearinghouse is enhanced by the fact that AdvanceClaim provides all the applications needed to process and manage patient data, billing and claims history. This is total integration. What we’ve done is brought this all into one place on a Web-based platform.  We’re really streamlining the billing process and providing tremendous value for AdvanceClaim users.”

The AdvanceClaim user interface provides all relevant patient information, including eligibility and claims status, on one, easy-to-navigate page. Information can be accessed remotely across multiple platforms – PC or Mac, smart phone, iPad, etc. – in real time.

The capital outlay and operating costs commonly associated with other EMS billing approaches – multiple billing and eligibility contacts, hardware purchase and maintenance, and IT support – are virtually eliminated with AdvanceClaim. Users pay a one-time start-up fee that covers the cost of software and initial administrative processing, followed by a monthly charge based on each time a user or users within an organization access the service. No individual user fees exist, as is the case when individual departments within an EMS organization tap into claims and benefits sites.

Missing, too, are hardware and personnel costs associated with server maintenance and upgrades. A software as a service, AdvanceClaim gives users 24/7/365 access that comes with full data center backup and multi-level redundancy.

AdvanceClaim was founded in November 2009 to provide “A Radically Better EMS Solution” for EMS organizations and other first responders.

Critical care and critical data go hand in hand and seamless blending of the two by EMS responders and their administration optimizes the EMS billing process. For EMS departments and other first responders, improved turnaround time and increased revenue from bill collections have an immediate and positive impact on the bottom line.

Better fiscal performance in these areas is a matter of optimizing on-scene reporting and data gathering as well as increasing accuracy and efficiency in data management. Instant, real-time access to patient data by paramedics at the scene and hospitals is critical if responding personnel are to make informed decisions regarding treatment and insurance coverage.

With proper on-scene data entry by informed paramedics, departmental EMS billing, claims processing and collections personnel can focus on verifying insurance coverage, follow-up data entry and delinquent payment enforcement. Medicare and other insurance data as well as billing status must be at the fingertips of clerks and administrators if they are to make accurate and efficient decisions regarding accounts. The same is true of outstanding bill collection and Medicare reimbursement; payments due must be addressed quickly to maintain cash flow and budget integrity. Time is money.

For this, administrators of EMS departments and other first-responder organizations must be certain to provide personnel with direct Internet links to make informed decisions that yield time- and money-saving processes. Gathering and processing data as efficiently as possible is critical to achieve this.

In AdvanceClaim, paramedics and EMS administrators find the only real-time, Web-based EMS billing solution that puts all patient data gathering and processing information at their immediate disposal. The one-stop shop provides EMS departments a cost-effective means to access an integrated clearinghouse that provides all the tools and information necessary for the complete patient cycle, from response to billing to claims reimbursement.

This streamlined system saves money and resources and its Web-based nature means it’s fully supported by an off-site data center with full, around-the-clock IT support and system redundancy. The result is no down time for EMS departments’ billing and collection operations. More time and easier access to a comprehensive data profiles for patients promises faster billing and more effective collections.