Fujifilm Medical Systems, U.S.A., has launched a collaboration with Availity – a cloud-based platform for automated submissions that pre-clears and verifies authorization for imaging exams, and ensures that patients with high deductibles are aware of their financial obligations prior to or upon arrival for procedures.

"By working with Availity, Fujifilm can now offer new revenue cycle solutions and patient engagement tools, that weren't previously available with Synapse RIS," said Fujifilm Medical's William Lacy, vice president of Medical Informatics. "We are very unique in our ability to bring a complete solution to radiology group and imaging center practices, including integrated PACS, RIS, billing, physician and patient portals. Our Availity partnership further strengthens this portfolio, and provides our customers what they need to optimize their imaging business."

The Availity arrangement will up the features available in Synapse RIS. Synapse already lets radiology facilities manage operations with features able to handle scheduling, patient and physician portals, business intelligence analytics and productivity-boosting tools like Kiosk, universal worklist, and paperless consent forms.
Availity Authorizations and Availity Patient Access are now integrated into the Synapse RIS interface to let providers collect at the point of service, cut down on denied claims and make for better workflow efficiency.

Cloud-based Availity Authorizations lets providers automatically make submissions in real time. This feature does away totally with manual authorization tasks – and boosts schedule streamlining and expensive denials that lead to service being provided prior to insurer authorizations.

Availity Patient Access helps communicate costs to patients, and providers can determine before the visit what the patient's finances are, permitting a discussion of payment options before problems arise.

"Imaging providers realize that revenue generated from self-pay and high-deductible patients meets or exceeds the volume of reimbursement from many legacy payers," said senior vice president and general manager of Provider Solutions for Availity Scott Herbst. "The unique partnership between Availity and Fujifilm empowers those providers with the tools necessary to effectively collect from patients, while improving communication and patient satisfaction."

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