Lenexa, Kan.-based health care technology company WellSky has forged a partnership with reimbursement solutions firm CompanyMileage to develop systems designed to improve the efficiency of employee travel for hospice and home health companies. The companies report that the system has reduced mileage reimbursement costs for some organizations by as much as 30%.
WellSky is a portfolio company of San Francisco-based private equity firm TPG Capital. TPG’s portfolio includes companies from a range of industries, including health care, retail, financial services, technology and real estate, among others.
Their collaboration with CompanyMileage integrates WellSky’s electronic health records system with CompanyMileage’s distance tracking system. When staff document their visits to patient homes in the electronic health record, the integrated system automatically calculates mileage based on patient addresses.
Depending on the geographic areas served, transportation costs can accumulate substantially for organizations that provide care in the home.
“For our organization the costs are very significant. Our employees last year travelled more than 2 million miles,” said Bethany Snider, chief medical officer for Indiana-based Hosparus Health. “When you are like Hosparus, which covers 37 counties across two states, that is a significant burden.”
These costs can be a particular concern for rural hospice providers who may have to travel an hour or more between patient homes.
The integrated mileage system is designed to help hospice and home health companies prevent potentially inaccurate reimbursements without changing the organization’s daily workflows, and reduces time spent on data entry and preparing and processing of expense reports.
“Most of our clients deliver care in the home, and tracking and reimbursing mileage can be a cumbersome practice,” Ben Chapman, WellSky’s senior vice president and general manager of home health and hospice,” told Hospice News. “It can become a burden for clinicians to try to keep track of how many miles they are driving between patient’s houses, and on the flip side for operations staff trying to validate and pay for the mileage. Our focus is on increasing the efficiency of our clients so they can reap the savings and focus on care delivery.”
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