Ingenix and A-Life Hospital combine their medical technologies to automate complex coding procedures

Oct 3 2009

Ingenix, a leading provider of health information, technology and consulting services, and A-Life Hospital, a wholly owned subsidiary of A-Life Medical, today announced an agreement to connect the Ingenix Web.Strat™ encoder with Actus®, A-Life Hospital’s computer-assisted coding (CAC) application. Combining these complementary medical coding technologies will deliver greater value to coding efforts by helping hospitals complete billing processes faster and more accurately, ultimately accelerating payments and reducing administrative costs.

Actus features A-Life Hospital’s proprietary Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, which deciphers the meaning and context of words in clinical documentation and recommends relevant medical codes. Coding staff can then use Web.Strat to conduct additional research or to validate CAC-generated codes before completing a case. Web.Strat gives coders the flexibility to use either a fully-functioning book-based encoding tool to find medical codes, or a phrase-based-logic encoding tool that guides them to potential code matches as they enter descriptions into a search field. Interconnecting Actus and Web.Strat will speed up the coding process, and improve coding accuracy.

“Working together, Ingenix and A-Life Hospital will help coding staff complete their work in fewer steps and automate complex coding procedures,” said Ron Jones, senior vice president of Ingenix. “Current economic challenges emphasize the importance of streamlining administrative processes and reducing expenses. This agreement will make it easier for hospitals to access coding technologies that support their efforts to improve financial performance.”

“The market recognition and position of Ingenix will assist with our efforts to deliver A-Life’s proven NLP technology to the hospital market. Ingenix brings complementary capabilities to the coding solutions market, and the company shares A-Life Hospital’s commitment to helping hospitals reduce costs,” said Tom Bang, CEO, A-Life Medical. “Together, we will provide applications that allow hospitals to more efficiently submit billing information and improve revenue cycle management.”

Jones added that A-Life Hospitals’ technologies have been invaluable to helping hospitals to manage the full-range of coding demands. “Combining A-Life’s sophisticated NLP technology with the broad capabilities of the Web.Strat encoder creates a simple, more accurate method for automated coding for both and inpatient outpatient encounters.”

In addition to collaborating with A-Life Hospital to develop new coding solutions, Ingenix will offer the Actus CAC application to hospitals as a complement to its full collection of solutions for improving clinical and financial performance.