Partners help Brightree grow

DULUTH, Ga. - Brightree has always touted its Internet-based software as a solution for HME executives who want to access their billing anytime, anywhere, from any computer. Now they're trumpeting the ability for others to get into your system. In several alliances rolled out this year, Brightree has partnered with companies that can handle an HME provider's insurance billing (ACU-serve), patient billing (Home Care Collection Services) and line of credit (Wall Financial Services). In the past six months, 30 of Brightree's 300 customers have outsourced insurance billing to ACU-serve. Twenty of the 300 have out-sourced their patient billings and collections to Akron, Ohio-based Homecare Collections Services (See HME News July 2006). Brightree's Internet platform, said the company's CEO Dave Cormack, makes this kind of outsourcing attractive in a whole new way. "If you take a company that does insurance or patient billing, you have to fax information on paper," said Cormack. "Then, the billing service company has to pull that into their own system. You, physically, can't get in to see how they are getting on. It's a blinkered approach." Because an HME provider's billing resides on Brightree servers, billing companies can log in to a company's files and get to work within 24 hours. That's how HCS General Manager Dave Bargmann has been ramping up the 20 different Brightree customers who've outsourced their patient billing to him. "They just give us a log in," said Bargmann. "We know the software intimately." HCS also claims to know patient billing intimately, which is why they say they can boost the recovery of patient co-pays and deductibles from 25% to 50% to 60% to 90%. How so? No. 1, HCS works the phones. And No. 2, HCS works beyond 9-to-5. "Most DMEs are open from 8-to-5," said Bargmann. "We're open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. A lot of times, DME providers simply can't get the patient on the phone. We can." With Brightree, HCS functions as both a patient billing and patient collections arm of the client HME. As soon as an EOB comes into the HME, HCS sends out an invoice. "In the first 90 days, we free up the client from all their patient interactions," said Bargmann. In that time, HCS typically recovers 60% to 70% of the patient receivables. After 90 days, they function as a collections agency, collecting an additional 20% to 30%. HCS is now working with 100 HME customers.