COLUMBIA, S.C., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Companion Technologies recently began marketing a retail healthcare and financial transaction system for doctors’ offices and hospitals. Physician offices in South Carolina are the first to begin using the system.
Named Companion Direct Point of Care, the product is housed in a swipe card box just like a credit card box. It contains software that performs three functions: it will allow doctors’ offices to check a patient’s eligibility, it will submit claims for real-time adjudication to those insurers that have this capability, and it will perform financial transactions using a credit or debit card.
Office staff use it by swiping an insurance card containing a magnetic strip or by keying in the patient’s identification number from a traditional insurance card, and entering only a few key data requirements.
“For medical facilities, this means a fundamental change in their way of doing business,” said Harvey Galloway, president of Companion Technologies. “It turns the payment process in the doctor’s office into a typical retail transaction. As high deductible health plans become more prevalent, Companion Direct Point of Care is the most efficient way for a doctor’s office to get payment from their patients. It’s all completed at the point of service with just a swipe card and a few key strokes.”
“This system is providing a positive time changing process, cutting back on the amount of hours daily that I spend following up on claim denials and collections,” said Marilyn Myers, practice manager at West Ashley Family Medicine, Charleston, S.C.
“We were very impressed with the pricing and the service of getting our swipe card system set up,” said Amy Carling, practice manager at Carolina Pediatric Associates, Blacksburg, S.C. “We’re a rural practice in the Upstate with many Medicaid patients, and we believe this will really help us determine if a patient is on any of the new Medicaid managed care or HMO plans where they are linked with a particular doctor. We’ve been looking for a system like this for a while, and this was the first system we came across that does healthcare and financial transactions so we jumped at it.”
“This means that we have one machine on the front desk that is good for everything,” said Sherri P. Barrett, office manager at Northeast Orthopaedics, Columbia, S.C. “It has been my pleasure using this system.”
Companion Technologies began marketing Companion Direct Point of Care in South Carolina in August. Marketing will expand to other states later. Doctors’ offices interested in the system can contact Companion Technologies at 800-288-2227 ext. 42216.
Based in Columbia, S.C., Companion Technologies (www.companiontechnologies.com) provides hospitals and physician organizations with financial, clinical, operational and managed care information management services, from practice management systems, electronic medical records and electronic data interchange, to hardware and network services.
Companion Technologies
CONTACT: Elizabeth Hammond, +1-803-264-4626, for Companion Technologies
Web site: http://www.companiontechnologies.com/