Stratum Med Selects MPV as Vendor of Choice for its 3,000 Physicians
Physician-owned services company chooses MPV for improved contract management and claims auditing

AUSTIN, Texas. – October 29, 2007 – Stratum Med, a physician owned and governed services company representing 19 large multi-specialty groups in the Midwest, selected Medical Present Value, Inc. (MPV) as its contract management and claims auditing provider of choice. Under the terms of the agreement, MPV will provide its financial tools and services to help the organization's more than 3,000 physicians automate payor contract management and monitor reimbursement.

"With the growing complexity of payor contracts, our physician groups need a proven, reliable solution for tracking payor compliance with contract terms," said Gerry Tresslar, CEO of Stratum Med. "After a very thorough RFP process, we ultimately chose MPV because they best met the performance requirements and standards of our clinics."

MPV's professional contract analysts will partner with Stratum practices to fully define and model payor contract terms into the Web-based MPV Phynance™ application, which then values healthcare claims according to the fee schedules and payment policies associated with each payor contract. This combined services and technology approach enables groups to better identify and appeal claims paid at less than the contract rate and identify potential registration and posting errors.

"The automation MPV provides will allow our physicians to validate a long-standing belief that many claims are underpaid," said Martha Baddour, executive director of medical enterprises at Stratum Med. "By partnering with MPV, our physician groups will be able to identify and appeal these underpaid claims, leading to increased revenue and improved cash flow."

Stratum Med practices can then use the claims information stored in Phynance to identify payment trends and evaluate the financial implications of proposed contract terms. This data can also be used to calculate insurance allowables and patient estimates at or before the time of service, helping users to reduce patient bad debt as well as the costs associated with billing processes.

"As a services company, Stratum Med is committed to helping medical groups sustain profitability in today's changing reimbursement climate. The organization's selection of MPV demonstrates the significant impact payor contracts have on a group's revenue cycle," said Tom Stampiglia, CEO of MPV. "We look forward to working with Stratum's distinguished physician groups and providing them with resources to improve their overall payor contract performance."

For more information about MPV's solutions, visit booth #1229 at the MGMA 2007 Annual Conference in Philadelphia, October 28-31.

About Stratum

Stratum Med is a physician owned and governed Services Company headquartered in Urbana, Ill. The organization's primary goal is to enable physician groups to improve their practices by increasing or stabilizing their income through leveraged purchasing, eliminating redundancy and sharing intellectual capital. Such an approach allows its constituency to remain independent while garnering the savings and economies of scale typically achieved only by hospitals and large "mega" groups. Since it organized in 1996, Stratum Med has saved its shareholders and clients in excess of $50 million in areas such as insurance, medical supplies, information technology, business support services and physician recruiting.

To date, Stratum Med represents more than 3,000 physicians in the Midwest and other select regions of the country. It has grown to the point where it is considered one of the largest, non-acute purchasing cooperatives in the United States.

About MPV

MPV provides medical groups with financial tools and expert consultative services to monitor payor performance; verify reimbursement; reduce registration, coding and posting errors; negotiate better contracts; and improve overall cash flow. Serving more than 22,000 physicians nationwide, MPV gives clients better control of their payor contracts, improves workflow efficiency and strengthens the bottom line. For more information, please visit www.mpv.com.

Contact:
Medical Present Value, Inc. (MPV)
Merideth Fulton
512.439.0201
mfulton@mpv.com

<< Back