Revenue cycle management solutions provider AGS Health announced the launch of operations in Manila, Philippines. Serving as a strategic growth partner to more than 100 major healthcare providers across the U.S., the expansion will offer AGS Health and its customers increased access to global talent.
Identified as one of the most popular outsourcing destinations in the world, the Philippines is known for the quality of skills offered in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. With strong medical backgrounds and voice-based skills, AGS Health aims to focus on supporting end-to-end accounts receivable services. “By augmenting our service line with patient calls, responding to patient queries, and timely patient follow-ups, the addition of our Philippines operations represents an exciting added value to our customers,” said Patrice Wolfe, CEO of AGS Health.
As the company continues to grow, AGS Health is diversifying its global operating locations. The Manila office is the second recent global addition for the company, following the opening of its Jaipur, India office in June 2022. With more than 11,000 employees worldwide, AGS Health combines a global pool of expertly trained, college-educated resources with AI-enabled technology to leverage the latest advancements in modern revenue cycle practices.
The COVID-19 global pandemic and widespread natural disasters have highlighted the importance of business continuity planning. With an already-extensive presence established in India, AGS Health strengthens its infrastructure with this cross-country addition.
“Our expanded footprint reduces the risk of business disruptions to our clients should operations be interrupted in India,” Wolfe said, adding “The Philippines emerged as our top choice for its solid, low-risk infrastructure and its role as a top business center.”
AGS Health, a leading provider for tech-enabled revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions and strategic growth partner to healthcare providers across the U.S., announces the acquisition of the India-based patient access outsourcing business unit of the Florida-based healthcare technology company Availity.
With more than half of U.S. hospitals anticipating a year of negative margins, achieving full and accurate reimbursement for services has never been more critical. With this expansion, AGS Health is positioned to provide faster, more flexible financial clearance solutions at an even greater scale to help increase customers’ first-pass reimbursements rates.
“At AGS Health, our focus is greater financial freedom for healthcare organizations, allowing them to reinvest in their vision for superior patient care,” said Patrice Wolfe, CEO of AGS Health. “With this acquisition, we can better equip our customers with the tools and expert services necessary to help overcome payer complexities, reduce denial rates, mitigate revenue leakage, and accelerate cash flow on the back end.”
The acquisition allows AGS Health to expand the capabilities of the AGS AI Platform with new technology to enhance accuracy and scalability and further streamline patient access operations. The technology platform is capable of automatically determining, submitting, and verifying the status of prior authorization requests. Additionally, estimates of the patient’s out-of-pocket cost can be automatically generated based on payer rules set by the healthcare organization.
The move will also add approximately 200 patient access service team members to AGS Health’s global team of more than 11,000 college-educated, trained RCM experts. With labor shortages devastating all areas of the healthcare system, outsourced services are more critical than ever – particularly as financial clearance performance depends on access to qualified, skilled labor.
“This acquisition is just part of our continued investment in our customers’ success with automation technology and expert teams,” Wolfe adds. “As growth partners, we are committed to equipping our customers with flexible, modern solutions to mitigate risk and adapt to change. This is part of what we call ‘AI with a human touch’.”
Health equity is a focus of providers, regulatory agencies, and payers as they seek ways to eliminate care disparities across race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status lines. Its significance is further impacted by new quality-based care models beyond those established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
The challenge for many healthcare organizations participating in these new reimbursement models is how to view health equity and social determinants of health (SDoH) to understand the actual value of this information. Often overlooked is that healthcare organizations’ coding and revenue cycle management (RCM) departments already aggregate information that can help better understand inequities in care delivery and health equity across their patient populations.
A Primer on SDOH Impacts
SDoH impact many health risks and outcomes, which is why this data is vital for clinical care and reimbursements. Defining factors can include anything from geography, race, gender, and age to disability, health plan, or any other shared characteristic. Of increased importance, SDoH issues are most often experienced by the most vulnerable members of society: the poor, less educated, and other disadvantaged groups.
SDoH is linked negatively with outcomes, including higher hospital readmissions, length of stay (LOS), and increased need for post-acute care. Value-based payment programs, therefore, may penalize organizations that disproportionately serve disadvantaged populations if they do not collect and respond to SDoH data.
For example, addressing food insecurity — a key SDoH data point — by connecting patients to programs like Meals on Wheels, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP), or food pantries is proven to reduce malnutrition rates and improve short and long-term health outcomes.
In the case of SNAP, which is the primary source of nutrition assistance for more than 42 million low-income Americans, participants are more likely to report excellent or very good health than low-income non-participants. Low-income adults participating in SNAP incur about 25% less medical care costs (~$1,400) per year than low-income non-participants.
AGS Health, a revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions provider and partner to some of the largest healthcare systems in the U.S., launched its AGS AI Platform, a connected solution that blends artificial intelligence (AI) and automation with award-winning human-in-the-loop services and expert support to maximize revenue cycle performance.
Industry-wide, health systems are being stretched as they face chronic and worsening labor shortages while attempting to address higher denial rates and an onslaught of audits. Shrinking margins limit organizations’ ability to reinvest in care delivery. In this time of high turnover, the AGS AI Platform helps to reduce stress, prevent burnout, and improve job satisfaction by offering the ability to automate high-volume repetitive tasks, allowing skilled staff to focus on more complex tasks.
“AGS Health is excited to deliver this platform as a lifeline to provider organizations in challenging times,” says Patrice Wolfe, CEO of AGS Health. “With our industry expertise, AI-enhanced technology, and specialized services, AGS Health is helping healthcare organizations achieve the financial freedom necessary to invest in the latest healthcare innovations and deliver high-quality care to their communities.”
The platform allows healthcare organizations to gain enhanced visibility into day-to-day operations and the overall performance of the revenue cycle, including intelligent worklists, productivity reports, customizable dashboards, root cause analyses, and executive reporting. Performance trends and predictive analytics help to prevent bottlenecks, reduce denials, and mitigate revenue leakage.
AGS Health, the tech-enabled revenue cycle management solution provider for major healthcare organizations across the U.S., has again been named a Leader and Star Performer in Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) Operations by Everest Group. The company was recognized in the top quartile for performance in market success and capability advancement as part of Everest Group’s Revenue Cycle Management Operations PEAK Matrix Assessment 2022.
The report assesses 31 RCM service providers based on market impact and the ability to deliver services successfully-as defined by subdimensions including market adoption, portfolio mix, value delivered, and strategic vision-to identify each organization’s overall market leadership position, labeled as Aspirant, Major Contender, or Leader.
AGS Health is honored to be recognized as a Leader for the second consecutive year, and a Star Performer for the third consecutive year. Star Performers are selected based on year-over-year advances in areas including growth, innovation, and technology investments.
“As delighted as we are to receive this industry recognition, we are most proud that it represents the value we continue to deliver to our clients through ongoing investment in innovation and service,” says Patrice Wolfe, CEO of AGS Health. “It demonstrates our commitment to helping ease our customers’ administrative and financial burdens through a strategic mix of technology, analytics, and process improvement, so they can focus on their core mission of providing high-quality patient care.”
AGS Health serves as a trusted partner in A/R management, coding, and business analytics to more than 100 major healthcare providers across the U.S. The company’s 100% graduate workforce of 10,000+ results-focused revenue cycle experts processes more than $50 billion in A/R annually and codes an excess of 41 million charts.
Revenue cycle management solutions leader, AGS Health, announces the opening of a new office location in Jaipur, India. The new facility will support the organization’s ongoing expansion and dedication to cultivating workforce talent.
AGS Health opened in 2011 with offices in Chennai, India, and New York City. As the company celebrates its 11th anniversary, it now employs a 100% graduate workforce of approximately 10,000 employees, serving more than 100 major healthcare providers across the U.S. As the company continues to grow, AGS Health is diversifying its global operating locations.
Jaipur was selected as the newest office location, in part for its skilled talent pool. By partnering with local universities, AGS Health is able to recruit and train recent graduates on medical coding and revenue cycle management in the AGS Health Training Academy. “We believe the quality of talent in this region will allow us to continue delivering world-class service as we grow,” said Patrice R. Wolfe, chief executive officer of AGS Health. The company has already begun hiring for the Jaipur location and expects to be staffed at approximately 350 team members by August, with a goal of scaling up to 3,000 as operations are established.
AGS Health, a leader in revenue cycle management solutions for major healthcare providers across the U.S., has achieved Cybersecurity Transparent status through a voluntary risk assessment process and program from Censinet and KLAS Research.
KLAS and Censinet launched the Cybersecurity Transparent designation to enable healthcare IT vendors and services firms to improve their overall risk and security profile by driving greater trust and transparency to thousands of healthcare providers. AGS Health volunteered for the assessment as a demonstration of its commitment to mitigating the rapidly growing risk of cyberattack – a critical threat for a healthcare industry that saw a 45% increase in attacks worldwide.
“Protecting the data entrusted to us by our clients is of the utmost importance to AGS Health, which is why we voluntarily underwent Censinet’s cybersecurity assessment,” said Patrice Wolfe, CEO of AGS Health. “We are proud to have our risk mitigation efforts recognized by this important Cybersecurity Transparent designation and appreciate the trust it instills in our clients that their data is secure.”
Adds Prasad PK, AGS Health’s General Counsel and Vice President of Legal & Corporate Affairs: “AGS Health worked closely with Censinet on an extensive assessment that ultimately demonstrated our alignment on critical standards for managing healthcare cybersecurity risk. It is gratifying to have met the rigorous standards for data protection as determined by the industry’s leading experts and to be able to demonstrate that accomplishment to our clients through this Cybersecurity Transparent designation.”
The Cybersecurity Transparent program assessment looks at six categories that measure and reflect the effectiveness of an organization’s cybersecurity processes: network security; data protection; identity and access management; threat and incident response; legal and regulatory; and resiliency. AGS Health received a top grade of “Mature” across all six categories. A full list of the companies and products that achieved Cybersecurity Transparent designation can be found at klasresearch.com/censinet.
“Cybersecurity is no longer an option for market-leading products from blue-chip companies that support the healthcare industry, and our partnership with Censinet brings effective risk management to the forefront,” said Taylor Davis, president of KLAS.
Revenue cycle management solutions provider AGS Health announced the launch of operations in Manila, Philippines. Serving as a strategic growth partner to more than 100 major healthcare providers across the U.S., the expansion will offer AGS Health and its customers increased access to global talent.
AGS Health
