Slideshow: Extended Business Office Services

October 31, 2011

10:01 AM

Extended Business Office Services

Healthcare providers use third-party firms to handle Extended Business Office Services (EBOS) for myriad purposes. Research firm KLAS released a report titled "Extended Business Office Services: Money Talks," which breaks down the pros and cons of vendors that offer such services. View this slideshow for visuals from the report. Click on the images to enlarge.

For more information about the report, visit KLASresearch.com.

Overall Performance Scores

PwC Extended Business Office is the top vendor, with a performance rating of 92.7. Respondents noted that the vendor, which offers primarily private insurance collection and government follow-up, met most of their expectations. Firstsource comes in second, while Deloitte, Anthelio and Cymetrix follow closely behind. Anthelio has improved its performance score significantly since KLAS’ 2009 report, in which it was last place.

Variety of Vendors

KLAS surveyed 90 providers, who identified 21 vendors they were using. Ten vendors qualified for the report. The above graph shows which other vendors were considered for business process outsourcing (BPO). KLAS identified four “groups” of vendors based on the types of services they provide: consulting firms, BPO firms, end-to-end outsourcers and technology vendors.

Private Insurance Follow-Up

The above graph shows performance scores vendors received for private insurance follow-up. In this category, Firstsource beat out PwC, with a rating of 8.8, as compared to 8.6 for PwC. The average score was 7.6, and the lowest performer is MedAssets, with a score of 6.0.

Impact on Cash Collections

PwC is well ahead of its competitors in its impact on clients’ cash collections, with a score of 8.4. MedAssets scored 5.4. Survey respondents noted that cash collection is one of the major benefits of EBOS, despite the many risks involved.

Clients’ Future Plans

Clients’ plans for their vendors vary widely. On the whole, the clients seem content to remain with their same vendor, with some undecided. Only two clients surveyed have decided to replace their vendors, while six have chosen to eliminate EBOS.