DEAL!

Client: Midwest Radiology.

Description: 10-physician practice in Kansas City, Mo.

Selection Leader: Jeffrey Kunin, M.D., president.

Issue Addressed: Ineffective billing office.

Vendor: Per-Se Technologies.

Service: Outsourced billing and practice management functions.

Contract Signed: January 2006.

Deployment: Began after contract signed. Per-Se replaced a billing staff as large as 20 people. Per-Se will use its own billing software.

Number Vendors Considered: Five.

Evaluation Tools: Reference checks and on-site presentations.

Word to the Wise: Move quickly on outsourcing contracts. “The employees found out sooner than we wanted to disclose, and that changed the atmosphere,” Kunin says.

Why Per-Se Won: Cost, management. “We felt Per-Se would at least match what we were collecting on our own,” Kunin says.

Hard Part: Closing down a billing office that had been a longstanding part of practice. “Not a decision taken lightly,” Kunin says.

—Gary Baldwin