STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 5, 2013--
Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) is helping healthcare providers reduce
costly and unnecessary hospital readmissions and avoid fines mandated by
the Affordable Care Act. The federal law established a readmissions
reduction program that is designed to improve care transitions and
reduce readmissions by assessing penalties for hospitals that readmit
patients who have been discharged within the previous 30 days.
A February 2013 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported
that 20 percent of Medicare patients are readmitted to hospitals within
30 days of discharge. This is driven in part by the fact that 80 percent
of hospitals and primary care physicians lack direct post-discharge
contact with patients to identify risks and offer a chance for
intervention.
By using a collaborative communications system as part of patient
discharge plans, providers have a way of controlling and ultimately,
reducing the number of hospital readmissions.
The Pitney Bowes Healthpoint 360 Collaborate solution is designed to
trigger communications before – and after - the patient discharge
process, and it is scalable to hundreds of thousands of patients as they
move through the healthcare continuum. Healthpoint 360 Collaborate
ensures that all information is accurate and up-to-date, allowing
providers to anticipate member needs and next steps for superior
follow-up response. This enables healthcare companies to prioritize and
personalize member communications across key channels, including contact
centers, intelligent voice response phone calls (IVRs), physical mail,
email, web portals, social media and mobile.
Healthpoint 360 Collaborate is an end-to-end communications platform
that can be implemented modularly. It complements existing investments
in care management software and EHR technology, allowing providers to
realize greater value from legacy systems. It is also available as a
hosted SaaS application.
About Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes provides technology solutions for small,
mid-size and large firms that help them connect with customers to build
loyalty and grow revenue. The company’s solutions for financial
services, insurance,
healthcare,
telecommunications,
legal,
public
sector and retail
organizations are delivered on open platforms to best organize, analyze
and apply both public and proprietary data to two-way customer
communications. Pitney Bowes is the only firm that includes direct mail,
transactional mail, call centers and in-store technologies in its
solution mix along with digital channels such as the Web, email, live
chat and mobile applications. Pitney Bowes has approximately USD$5
billion in annual revenues and 27,000 employees worldwide. Pitney Bowes:
Every connection is a new opportunity™. www.pb.com
Source: Pitney Bowes Inc.
SHIFT Communications
Dominic Weeks, 617-779-1818
pbsoftware@shiftcomm.com