Project of the Year, Revenue Cycle: Northwell Health, Great Neck, N.Y.

Northwell has taken a number of steps to assist patients in understanding their medical bills and making payments.

It has implemented the ClearQuote patient estimation application, from Austin, Texas-based TransUnion Healthcare, to provide detailed breakdowns of out-of-pocket costs before or at the point of service. The software connects with health plan networks to combine information about patient benefits, payer contracts and historic charges to calculate the out-of-pocket responsibility.

The health system also uses analytics software from TransUnion to gauge the patient’s propensity to pay. The software has tailored thresholds, such as a range of credit scores that generate propensity-to-pay status messages. Financial counselors can see if a patient qualifies for charity care or offered a loan to cover out-of-pocket costs.