1. Case Study
Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare
Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare partners with Convergent Revenue
Cycle Management to more than triple its self-pay collections rate
above historical baselines and increase patient satisfaction.
Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare is a Catholic, not-for-profit organization with more than 100 sites in
Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois including 15 hospital campuses, three transitional and extended care
facilities, two home health agencies, more than 3,500 physicians, 70 clinic sites with approximately
600 employed physicians, and approximately 17,000 associates.
Issues Answers
Several years ago, Wheaton Franciscan For Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, the
Healthcare struggled with pure self-pay and transition to outsourced accounts receivable
self-pay balances after insurance payment management for self-pay balances was
accounts. With limited staff to serve these near-instant. Convergent immediately placed
patients, wait times for inquiry calls averaged two representatives on-site to begin the
20 minutes and abandonment rates ran sky collections work as it continued to build its
high. This resulted in significant patient off-site team. Jones commented on the
satisfaction concerns that Wheaton wanted to transitional support, “Convergent’s on-site staff
resolve quickly. quickly adapted to our culture and became
part of our bigger team. As liaisons between
Convergent Healthcare Recoveries, Inc. the two companies, they really help to
(CHRI), a Convergent affiliate company, had minimize our involvement in this portion of the
already worked with Wheaton Franciscan business. We’re able to keep our focus on
Healthcare in a different capacity as the third-party receivables.” “We listen to calls every
provider of either primary or secondary bad two weeks, which helps
debt collection services over the past 13 Convergent operates as a true call center for us work together to
years. Recognizing an opportunity to help the Wheaton, helping patients resolve their issues. continually improve the
large health system improve self-pay collec- Its robust off-site customer service department quality of calls. It also
tion service levels and raise much-needed includes a predictive dialer for more productive confirms that Convergent
revenue, the CHRI team recommended that and cost-effective outbound calling to patients.
treats our patients with
Wheaton consider Convergent Revenue Cycle “We do have a dialer, but it didn’t function well
for us and we stopped using it. With
the same level of
Management (Convergent) as a partner in
Convergent, we have a more advanced compassion that we do as
reducing self-pay receivables while increasing
patient collections and improving patient system for reaching out to patients without the a Catholic organization.”
satisfaction with the business office experi- cost, complication and worry of running it,”
ence. said Jones. Michelle Jones
Director of Patient
Pleased with its existing CHRI relationship and Convergent also handles in-bound calls from Financial Services
the company’s performance, Wheaton Fran- patients, giving Wheaton the ability to listen in Wheaton Franciscan
ciscan Healthcare turned to Convergent for full on live calls. “We listen to calls every two
collections support on all primary self-pay weeks, which helps us work together to
accounts. “The quality of service that we continually improve the quality of calls. It also
receive and the compassion shown to our confirms that Convergent treats our patients
patients made Convergent a natural choice for with the same level of compassion that we do
our self-pay receivables,” said Michelle Jones, as a Catholic organization,” said Jones.
Director of Patient Financial Services.
888.511.7901 www.convergentusa.com/healthcare Page 1

2. At one point in the multi-year relationship, the can’t do what Convergent does for the cost.”
healthcare provider chose to split the self-pay
collections work between Convergent and a Derek Pickell, President, Convergent Revenue
second vendor to move away from a single- Cycle Management, explained Convergent’s
source situation. “Unfortunately, the second position, “Convergent understands that a
vendor was not able to provide the level of steady cash flow is essential for any health- “Not only have we
service we receive from Convergent,” said care organization committed to serving generated revenue, we’ve
Jones. “We quickly made the decision to patients in need. Our primary focus is to help also reduced expenses.
return all self-pay accounts to Convergent.” our client partners improve their financial
From a system and
After releasing the equivalent of more than 20 position from the very start of the relationship
full-time employees, Convergent was able to while strengthening relationships with patients
staffing perspective, we
quickly bring these resources back on board to and the community. We always strive to be a just can’t do what
reinstate services. “Convergent is very reliable true partner and an extension of our client’s Convergent does for the
and responsive to our changing needs. They management staff. We have invested literally cost.”
are always willing to find solutions to new millions of dollars in our state of the art Patient
challenges that arise,” Jones continued. Contact Centers to ensure our client partners Michelle Jones
are provided the highest level of financial and Director of Patient
Recently, Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare patient satisfaction performance possible in Financial Services
turned to Convergent to help reduce an the industry today. In addition to the ability of
overload of self-pay and insurance accounts our client partners to remotely listen to live
with credit balances. Convergent put two calls in our Patient Contact Center, the recent
employees to work on the project, resolving implementation of our proprietary CEScore
the accounts and saving Wheaton the costs of (Convergent Employee Scorecard) software
overtime it would have incurred by using its enables management and our associates to
own staff. monitor individual performance as compared
to client key performance indicators in real
Outcomes time. We know if we can’t measure perfor-
mance, we can’t expect to achieve industry
Convergent has helped Wheaton free up leading performance across our business.
self-pay cash to allocate to other areas of the CEScore is another example of the leading
business and raise the quality of service edge technology we now utilize to differentiate
extended to patients with self-pay balances. ourselves from our competition.”
Phone metrics also demonstrate a tremen-
dous improvement in customer service levels.
For inbound calls, the wait time to speak to a About Convergent
representative has dropped from an average
Formed in 1992, Convergent combines healthcare-
of 20 minutes to just 30 seconds 70 percent of
focused legal expertise, advanced technology and
the time. Call abandonment rates are now superior claims reimbursement management to
under five percent. deliver outstanding results for more than 630 Convergent Revenue Cycle
hospital clients, resolving their most significant Management, Inc.
By continually working together to uncover receivables management challenges.
and resolve issues standing in the way of 13575 Heathcote Boulevard
With more than 690 employees, including more Suite 300
greater productivity, Wheaton and Convergent
Gainesville, VA 20155
have exceeded the original goals the compa- than 60 healthcare attorneys, Convergent is the
888.511.7901
nies set for both collections and call response leading provider of solutions for non-governmental
insurance, self-pay, Workers' Compensation, motor www.convergentusa.com/healthcare
by 100 percent. “Convergent is a true part of
vehicle accident and aged problem claims, as well
our business office. To me, they are as patient access solutions. In addition to helping
Wheaton,” said Michelle. our clients resolve their most complex reimburse- *Bad debt services are provided by
ment issues, Convergent’s legal workshops, Convergent Healthcare Recoveries,
Since teaming up in 2005, Convergent has training and real-time interactive reporting enhance Inc., an affiliate company of
helped Wheaton to more than triple its self-pay all aspects of the revenue cycle. Learn about our Convergent Revenue Cycle
Management, Inc.
collections rate. “Not only have we generated services at www.convergentusa.com/healthcare.
revenue, we’ve also reduced expenses. From
a system and staffing perspective, we just Copyright © 2012 Convergent
All rights reserved.
888.511.7901 www.convergentusa.com/healthcare Page 2