azh GmbH High-speed Scanning und Input Management services from one source

azh GmbH High-speed Scanning und Input Management services from one source

azh GmbH Billing and IT Services Center for the Healthcare Sector azh GmbH, Billing and IT Services Center for the Healthcare Sector, relies on the fast and intelligent solutions from Swiss Post Solutions for the electronic processing of prescriptions and treatment orders. Due to the highly positive experience with the powerful SLAM-24 scanning systems and an even more convincing pretesting, the scanned documents are now transmitted to the IMA capturing solution for Billing Centers. This is a specific version of IMA (Input Management Automation) for the healthcare sector to process forms and documents for medicine and medical aids, which automatically recognizes and classifies different types of forms, extracts the required meta data and makes it available for further processing. «The low error rate of the capturing solution from Swiss Post Solutions ensures a smooth, quick and therefore efficient transaction processing.» Victor Castro Managing Director, azh GmbH azh GmbH is the billing and IT services centre for health professionals and has been specialized for more than 30 years in the settlement of prescriptions with health insurance companies as well as private patients. Together with the zrk GmbH, the prescription invoicing center for physiotherapists and physical therapists, and using the proprietary industry software solution azh TiM, azh offers innovative and future-proof solutions for special service providers in the healthcare market. This proficiency is founded on many years of experience and industry knowledge. Throughout Germany, a current staff of approximately 550 people is servicing approximately 20,000 customers. azh is headquartered in Munich, with subsidiaries in Recklinghausen, Viechtach, Leipzig and Oldenburg. The billing services from azh are based on the efficient electronic capturing of large document volumes, which are transmitted to azh from approx. 20,000 medical practices and businesses every day for further processing. In this range of duties, highly efficient operating processes saving manual effort and process automation with a minimum error rate are of vital importance, states Jürgen Thoma, Head of Production at azh. Thoma is convinced that, «in addition to the processing rate of our high-speed scanners, the quality of the recognition technology is a decisive factor for our competitiveness and our long-term business success». The payment vouchers must pass through a highly automated scanning and recognition process, ensuring transmittal of the relevant receipt data to the invoicing system in the shortest possible time for the further processing of transactions through the azh staff. Case Study azh GmbH l 2

Processing of 30,000 documents per hour At azh the prepared document batches are scanned with three SLAM 24-3 XXL high-performance scanners from Swiss Post Solutions, generating electronic images of the front and back sides both in black and white as well as in color. Each of these scanners processes more than 10,000 documents per hour. The systems are able to scan, print and sort the documents at full speed of 64 ips (inches per second). They are equipped with 21 sort pockets, a multi-head printer in front of the camera, as well as two multi-head printers after the camera. During the scanning process an identification number is printed onto the documents in plain text and as a barcode. This ID is the unique identifier of a document and particularly relevant for the subsequent sorting of the original documents. It is also visible on the generated document images as the information is printed before the recording with the camera. «In addition to the processing rate of our high-speed scanners, the quality of the capturing technology is a decisive factor for our competitiveness and our long-term business success» Jürgen Thoma Head of Production, azh GmbH Smart forms recognition An integrated barcode recognition module already identifies the type of form in the scanner by means of the provided images - for example, through the search for and interpretation of PDF417 bar codes which are usually present on medical documents. Through this, previously trained sample forms, for example, for prescriptions and treatment orders or specific authorization letters from health insurance companies can be recognized. The images generated during the scanning process and the extracted meta data, such as the mentioned identification number and the form type, are transmitted to the azh accounting system for further processing and to the IMA capturing application for Billing Centers. Very little manual effort required The forms identified as known during the scanning process are transmitetd to the IMA capturing application from Swiss Post Solutions. This is a specific version of the IMA capturing platform for the processing of forms and documents for medicine and medical aids in the healthcare sector. In this application the documents - more than 1 million pages per month - pass through a workflow for the processing and export of the document data. This means: The form data is automatically identified, extracted and interpreted. Victor Castro, Managing Director at azh confirms: «The low error rate of the Case Study azh GmbH l 3

capturing solution from Swiss Post Solutions ensures a smooth, quick and therefore efficient transaction processing. Even misplaced information within a line is recognized securely and dependably.» This is performed with so-called dynamic anchors, enabling the location of the content within a description field of a form, that is not precisely printed within the correspondent field. Even the rear side of medical receipts, which only have a form layout in the background, for example, receipts that the doctor completely prints himself, can be recognized automatically. So-called «Reader engines» are used for the recognition, which are based on standard Microsoft Windows systems. By varying the number of «reading machines» document volumes as well as the recognition throughput are flexibly scalable. The information from the recognition process, i.e. the extracted document data, is exported into results files within IMA for Billing Centers, transmitted to the accounting system of azh and there assigned to the respective open business cases. The document data obtained passes through a final validation. Only data which is not recognized or not plausible is edited manually and corrected if necessary. Automatic document sorting The sorting of the original documents is performed with the high-speed scanners from Swiss Post Solutions. The accounting system of azh creates sorting lists based on the reference numbers generated and printed during the scanning process. These are imported into the SLAM 24. Then the original documents are again placed into the highspeed scanner. By comparing the reference number on the receipt with the sorting list the scanner will «know» in which of the 21 trays the document belongs. This way, employees are able to quickly access the original documents which have to be submitted to the health insurance companies along with the invoice. Key factors for sustainable success Billing services are subject to a very high price and competitive pressure. Therefore, solution partners such as Swiss Post Solutions must be able to meet the technical standards as well as the specific requirements of a service provider: Each error will cost time and money, or in the worst case lead to demise of customer confidence. Applications in this environment must therefore be highly dependable and provide utmost performance. The seamless integration of IT applications into a defined end-to-end process requires adequate concepts and integration capabilities. Open interfaces provide a future-proof functionality and support a target-oriented expansion of the service offer. A high degree of scalability supports efficient handling of additional orders or unexpected peakloads. Case Study azh GmbH l 4

Swiss Post Solutions AG Integrated Document Solutions Sägereistrasse 25 CH-8152 Glattbrugg Phone +41 44 838 35 00 Swiss Post Solutions AG Integrated Document Solutions Roggenbachstraße 1 D-78050 Villingen-Schwenningen Phone +49 7721 9175 0 More info: www.spsids.com