RALEIGH, NC – Vendors offering claims management services often tout serving either providers or payers, but the partnership between Post-N-Track and Misys Healthcare Systems demonstrates that both providers and payers are critical to the goal of increasing the efficiency and accuracy of claims management.

M. Transaction Services, Misys' electronic data interchange service provider, will utilize Post-N-Track's software to expand its direct payer connectivity for customer transaction processing.

The partnership fits nicely into each company's business goals. Post-N-Track's strong relationship with Cigna, one of the top three payers nationally, made the company a desirable partner, said Keith Hagen, president of M. Transaction Services.

Marjorie O'Malley, president of Middletown, Conn.-based Post-N-Track, cited Misys's excellent relationship with providers as reason for forging the partnership. "Misys supports a huge number of providers that are important to payers," she said.

O'Malley noted that she is seeing a significant level of interest in direct connectivity from providers, payers, revenue managers and practice management systems managers. "Everyone sees direct connectivity as desirable but difficult to manage," she said.

With Post-N-Track handling testing, certification, and validation of claim specification, O'Malley said, payers and providers do not need to worry about the management of connections.

The partnership and expansion of its customer transaction services for direct connectivity fits into its overall strategy of finding the most efficient and high-quality way to process claims, Hagen said, "We provide a lot of different services and offer a full suite of integrated products," he said. "As we connect as a community, electronic connectivity becomes very important."

The partnership is a demonstration of a trend in the market, said Jocelyn Young, research director for healthcare technology at New York-based Datamonitor. "If we are going to achieve greater levels of integration in the industry, increasingly we have to take the higher ground and move beyond the simplistic view of who we are serving for the industry as a whole to benefit," she said.

The main challenge for physicians and clinics is revenue cycle management and improving cash flow, Young noted. "There's a lot of interest by payers and providers to add another piece to the solution for providers to achieve greater levels of accuracy in the claims management area," she said.