ATLANTA, Oct. 4, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- MedAvant Healthcare Solutions (MedAvant) (Nasdaq:PILL), a leader in healthcare technology and transaction services, today announced that it has signed an agreement with The Sentinel Group for the use of its prospective fraud and abuse detection services.
The Sentinel Group's offering will represent a critical part of MedAvant's turnkey Front-End Solutions, unveiled at the America's Health Insurance Plans conference earlier this year, and marketed to insurance companies and Third Party Administrators. MedAvant's Front-End Solutions focus on identifying and preventing healthcare fraud, abuse and overpayment through the use of advanced screening software and clinical analysis prior to claim adjudication, removing the need for the "pay and chase" process that is typical in the industry.
"We are excited to partner with the industry's leading fraud and abuse experts," said John Lettko, MedAvant President and Chief Executive Officer. "Integrating The Sentinel Group's real-time fraud screening into our suite of payer solutions means we can provide a truly comprehensive service to our customers that will secure great savings and time efficiencies, giving them a competitive advantage."
"This partnership with MedAvant reflects our shared conviction that the greatest savings in healthcare are made before the check goes out the door," said Julie Malida, President of The Sentinel Group. "We believe that teaming our services with MedAvant's other Front-End Solutions will provide combined value in the marketplace."
According to National Healthcare Antifraud Association statistics, up to 10 percent of all healthcare insurance claims are fraudulent, abusive or incorrect. That means that payers have to search for and identify the issues after a claim has already been paid, making recovery of dollars difficult, if not impossible. However, with MedAvant's suite of Front-End Solutions for payers, all of this is done on the "front end" before the claim ever goes into the payer's system to be adjudicated. That means the fraudulent claims never get paid in the first place. Since MedAvant integrates the Sentinel Group's fraud screen into its normal front-end claim processing services, it's easy and fast to begin using the service. MedAvant's full suite of Front-End Solutions for payers includes single source claim aggregation, clinical code editing, and web-based research tools, along with the new addition of pre-emptive fraud and abuse detection.
About MedAvant Healthcare Solutions
MedAvant provides information technology used to process transactions within the healthcare industry. MedAvant offers electronic claims processing to healthcare providers, a Preferred Provider Organization called the National Preferred Provider Network (NPPN(tm)) and remote reporting solutions for medical laboratories. To facilitate these services, MedAvant operates Phoenix(sm), a highly scalable platform which supports real-time connections between healthcare clients. For more information, visit http://www.medavanthealth.com. MedAvant is a trade name of ProxyMed, Inc.
The MedAvant Healthcare Solutions logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3540
About The Sentinel Group
The Sentinel Group, a division of Optimal Benefits Services, Inc., based in Lake Forest, Ill., is a recognized leader in the healthcare anti-fraud and abuse industry. The company has the largest team of fraud investigators, and is supported by sophisticated, state-of-the-art technology and years of in-depth intelligence gathered nationwide from healthcare providers. For more information, visit http://www.sentinelgrouponline.com.
Forward Looking Statement
Statements in this release that are "forward-looking statements" are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. Actual results could differ materially from projected results because of factors such as: the soundness of our business strategies relative to the perceived market opportunities; MedAvant's ability to successfully develop, market, sell, cross-sell, install and upgrade its clinical and financial transaction services and applications to current and new physicians, payers, medical laboratories and pharmacies; the ability to compete effectively on price and support services; MedAvant's ability and that of its business associates to perform satisfactorily under the terms of its contractual obligations, and to comply with various government rules regarding healthcare and patient privacy; entry into markets with vigorous competition, market acceptance of existing products and services, changes in licensing programs, product price discounts, delays in product development and related product release schedules, any of which may cause revenues and income to fall short of anticipated levels; the availability of competitive products or services; the continued ability to protect the company's intellectual property rights, implementation of operating cost structures that align with revenue growth; uninsured losses; adverse results in legal disputes resulting in liabilities; unanticipated tax liabilities; the effects of a natural disaster or other catastrophic event beyond our control that results in the destruction or disruption of any of our critical business or information technology systems. Any of these factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from the guidance given at this time. For further cautions about the risks of investing in MedAvant, we refer you to the documents MedAvant files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, its most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K. MedAvant does not assume, and expressly disclaims, any obligation to update information contained in this document. Although this release may remain available on our website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that we are reaffirming or confirming any of the information contained herein.