ClaimTrust Announces New RAC Webinar Series

Murfreesboro, Tennessee, February 2, 2011…ClaimTrust, a leading provider of revenue cycle tools and services for hospitals, , today announced it will be hosting a free "RAC Audit Services" webinar series, which will provide attendees with useful steps and tools to help healthcare organizations with Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) record requests, demand letters and appeals. This one-hour webinar is available for sign-up here and will run through March.

Since the permanent RAC program began, its primary focus has been related to coding issues, which currently account for over 80% of all denied claims. However, as the permanent RAC program begins to account for Medical Necessity issues, there is a growing need in the industry for a reliable resource that provider organizations can count on to provide insight and advice about appeals, as well as provide experienced, expert revenue cycle resources to help providers manage their workload. Medical Necessity issues accounted for over 40% of all denials in the demonstration phase — the most for any category, which virtually guarantees hospital staffs will assume additional responsibilities.

Narrated by Karen Bowden, president of ClaimTrust's consulting division, and Jeff St.Vrain, manager of marketing and product management, the "RAC Audit Services" series will focus on ClaimTrust's extensive experience with both the RAC demonstration phase and the permanent phase, and their appeal services which seek to alleviate some of the increased administrative burden that hospitals are beginning to experience.

"Based on our experiences with hospitals going back to the RAC demonstration phase, there is a real need in the marketplace today for more in-depth information about RAC. This free webinar gives us a platform to explore the ongoing challenges that organizations are facing when it comes to preventing and responding to these audits," said Ms. Bowden. "This webinar series is another great way for us to take our experiences working with healthcare organizations across the country facing RAC audits and provide specific appeal strategies that they can use to combat these audits."

Along with her team of RAC experts, Ms. Bowden, an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in hospital administration and revenue cycle, was able to recover over $6.8 million and win 93 percent of RAC audits appeals for ClaimTrust clients during the RAC demonstration phase. Experience and deep knowledge of complex payor systems puts ClaimTrust at the leading edge in implementing successful strategies that decrease the amount of denied claims and increase net revenue.