SALT LAKE CITY, July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- ARUP Laboratories, a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and a leader in innovative laboratory research and development, has entered into a services agreement with Mednet Services, a laboratory network and billing services IT company that specializes in the establishment and operation of direct and network-based outreach services, to expand its menu of services available to regional and local hospital-affiliated laboratories in the areas of direct and network-based outreach services. Mednet directs the operations of Joint Venture Hospital Laboratories (JVHL), a Michigan-based laboratory services network with a 12-year track record of success in contracting with managed care plans and third party payors.
In order to maintain ARUP's long-held belief that testing should be performed as close to the patient as possible, the company realizes it is critical to partner with experts who can help clients access outreach business. With that goal in mind, ARUP selected Mednet for their ability to provide and negotiate access to managed care contracts that will enable ARUP to help its clients grow their businesses more rapidly through the effectiveness of recognized, quality managed care contracting. While allowing ARUP to offer its clients additional value-added services, the technicalities and workings of this contract will remain virtually transparent to its clients.
"Mednet shares a common mission, vision, and business strategy with ARUP," comments ARUP President and COO Ronald Weiss, M.D., M.B.A. "We have chosen to partner with them in order to focus on our core competencies of esoteric laboratory testing, while simultaneously providing our clients with the opportunity to access managed care contracts and other valuable outreach solutions which are vital components for our customers."
According to the agreement, Mednet will be available to provide ARUP-qualified clients the following:
* Subcontracted consultation and negotiation functions for managed care contracting and/or third party payor functions, * Program development related to start-up and ongoing operations of direct and network-based outreach services programs as it relates to managed care and/or third-party payor contracting, * Direction and support to qualified clients interested in evaluating network opportunities and benefits, * Interim or long-term claims billing and data management support services, and * Ongoing support in managed care RFP and contract analysis and negotiations, market evaluation, and organizational management.
"Our plan is to offer a program which truly addresses providing the essential infrastructure of lab outreach programs that health systems may not have the expertise to provide on their own," says Khosrow Shotorbani, M.B.A., MT(ASCP), senior vice president and director of sales at ARUP. "Addressing this critical need will complement our clients' business strategies. Partnering with Mednet, which specializes in lab outreach managed care contracting, has tremendous upside, as we will have our own resource pool dedicated to improving our menu of tangible offerings."
"We look forward to working with ARUP's clients to be successful in the managed care market and collaborating with ARUP's outreach services programs to make them second to none," remarks Jack Shaw, president of Mednet and executive director of JVHL. "When hospitals and health systems establish solid outreach relationships with physicians through high-quality testing, information, and support services, and build upon these services by offering unique benefits to managed care plans, they have every chance to become successful in gaining contracts and growing their outreach business. Our business strategy includes working with hospitals and health systems to deliver these services to physicians and managed care plans."
Mednet has considerable experience with the JVHL network, which has 100+ hospital-affiliated laboratories committed to providing managed care plans, their members, and physicians with the highest quality, convenient, and efficient laboratory services. Lab testing is one of the most vital diagnostic tools in all segments of health care. Through JVHL, its network labs have been able to gain outreach testing market share in their local communities and support continuum of care testing for their client physicians and patients. This parallels ARUP's philosophy in laboratory medicine.
About ARUP Laboratories
ARUP Laboratories is a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and an enterprise of the University of Utah and its Department of Pathology. With more than 1,800 employees, ARUP offers in excess of 2,000 tests and test combinations, ranging from routine screening tests to highly esoteric molecular and genetic assays, for patients throughout the country. Rather than competing with its clients for physician office business, ARUP chooses instead to support clients' existing test menus by offering highly complex and unique tests, with accompanying consultative support, to enhance their abilities to provide local and regional laboratory services. ARUP's clients include more than half of the nation's university teaching hospitals and children's hospitals, as well as multihospital groups, major commercial laboratories, group purchasing organizations, military and government facilities, and major clinics. In addition, ARUP is a worldwide leader in innovative laboratory research and development, led by the efforts of the ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology(TM). Further information on ARUP Laboratories can be obtained at www.aruplab.com.
ARUP LaboratoriesCONTACT: Ronald L. Weiss, M.D., M.B.A., President and Chief OperatingOfficer of ARUP Laboratories, +1-801-584-5188; or Jack Shaw, President,Mednet Services, Executive Director, Joint Venture Hospital Laboratories,+1-313-271-3692
Web site: http://www.aruplab.com/
