DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Conifer Health Solutions today announced a 10-year agreement with Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) to provide revenue cycle services for 56 of CHI’s hospitals across the nation. Conifer will provide Patient Access, Revenue Integrity, and Patient Financial Services to the CHI hospitals. These CHI hospitals generate more than $6 billion in annual patient revenue. Conifer, a subsidiary of Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE:THC), has more than 30 years of experience providing hospitals with business process management solutions, which allow hospitals to focus on patient care and quality while Conifer focuses on improving and sustaining their financial performance.
Through this agreement, CHI will enhance its patient services and revenue cycle operations, helping it to focus even more intently on fulfilling its mission to create healthier communities. CHI expects to stabilize its revenue cycle costs in the face of health reform, changes in commercial payer reimbursement rates, expanding Medicaid eligibility, and increasing investments in information technology. In response to rising healthcare costs, providers are increasingly seeking to identify means to enhance cost efficiency and capture incremental revenue. CHI’s strategy of partnering with Conifer is an important validation of the value healthcare providers place on mission critical revenue cycle activities.
Conifer’s integration process will include the transition of CHI’s revenue cycle employees to Conifer. These employees will remain in their current locations, and job reductions are not anticipated to exceed normal attrition. These revenue cycle employees will be trained and equipped with Conifer’s industry-leading processes and technology. The integration process is expected to be completed within 24 months. As part of this agreement, CHI will receive a minority ownership position in Conifer. No financial terms were disclosed.
“We have chosen to partner with Conifer and Tenet Healthcare for our revenue cycle services because of their outstanding track record with leading technology, tools and training,” said Dean Swindle, executive vice president, business services and chief financial officer of CHI. “As a part of our relationship with Conifer, we will develop products and services to further improve patient experiences and reduce costs, helping CHI enhance its mission of building healthier communities.”
“We are excited to be working with Catholic Health Initiatives to assist them in building a strong, standardized platform to support their hospitals,” said Stephen Mooney, president of Conifer Health Solutions. “We welcome their skilled and talented revenue cycle team members into our organization and appreciate the confidence CHI is showing in us to contribute to making a positive difference for their patients and hospitals.”
In a previously scheduled event, Conifer president Stephen Mooney will be the featured speaker in Tenet Healthcare’s investor webcast series today at 3:30 p.m. Central Time. To access the webcast go to the investor relations section of Tenet’s website at www.tenethealth.com/investors. A set of slides, which will be referred to during the presentation, is available at the Company’s website.
About Conifer Health Solutions
Conifer Health Solutions is a healthcare business process management services provider working to improve operational performance for more than 330 hospitals and healthcare entities so they can better serve their communities, communicate effectively with patients, and support patient financial administration. We have a passion for maximizing financial performance, while at the same time improving the patient experience. We provide comprehensive operational management for revenue cycle functions including patient access, revenue integrity, and patient financial services. We also offer patient communications solutions to optimize communication between providers and patients, including patient education, outreach, scheduling, medical necessity screening and HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Provider and Systems Survey) reporting. In addition to revenue cycle management and patient communications, our service offerings have expanded to support risk and capitation management, as well as ACO (Accountable Care Organization) and bundled payment processing. For more information, call 1-877-CONIFER or visit www.coniferhealth.com.
About Catholic Health Initiatives
Catholic Health Initiatives is a national nonprofit health organization with headquarters in Englewood, Colo. The faith-based system operates in 19 states and includes 76 hospitals; 40 long-term care, assisted- and residential-living facilities; two community health-services organizations; two accredited nursing colleges; and home health agencies. In fiscal year 2011, CHI provided more than $612 million in charity care and community benefit, including services for the poor, free clinics, education and research. With annual revenues of more than $10.5 billion, CHI is the nation's second-largest Catholic health care system.
Conifer Health Solutions, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE:THC). Some of the statements in this release may constitute forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on our current expectations and could be affected by numerous factors and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, certain of which are discussed in Tenet’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2011, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and periodic reports on Form 8-K. Do not rely on any forward-looking statement, as we cannot predict or control many of the factors that ultimately may affect our ability to achieve the results estimated. We make no promise to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of changes in underlying factors, new information, future events or otherwise.