Over 3000 attendees came together at the MedAssets Healthcare Business Summit in Las Vegas, March 24-28 for greatly expanded education, peer-to-peer networking, and recognition of healthcare providers and suppliers accomplishments to improve America's healthcare system. MedAssets announced its continued focus on helping healthcare providers solve key financial and operational challenges, emphasizing the combined roles of supply chain and revenue cycle management in establishing and sustaining provider revenue integrity, or ensuring hospitals are appropriately covering costs and being paid timely and accurately for the care they provide.
In his address to more than 3,000 healthcare professionals attending the summit, MedAssets' Chairman, President and CEO John Bardis provided an executive outlook on the healthcare industry and its economic impact to underscore the company's continued diligence in helping providers operate more efficiently and profitably.
"MedAssets began with a passion to help providers solve key challenges. We are still driven by this same passion and have expanded our offerings to address financial issues across the organization - from the procurement of supplies to the collection of revenue -- all of which affect a hospital's bottom line," said Bardis. "Through organic and acquired growth, we will continue to offer best of breed technologies and solutions coupled with knowledgeable people to help providers achieve improvements with the ultimate goal of improving the quality and cost of healthcare."
The guest speaker for the general session was Marcus Luttrell, author of the best-seller "Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10." Luttrell is a retired combat-trained Navy SEAL who served in Iraq for two years after being deployed to Afghanistan in the spring of 2005. Luttrell discussed the rigors of SEAL training, the battle with the Taliban during Operation Redwing, and his family's experience of community support and generosity.
During the general session, MedAssets also presented customer awards recognizing those who have achieved financial and operational improvement as well as those who have realized greater cost efficiency.
Jim Mayer, director of Peer Mentoring and Training for the Wounded Warrior Project received the Outstanding Humanitarian Award, which recognizes professional excellence and reflection of MedAssets' core values of commitment, compassion, confidence and character. Mayer is a wounded Vietnam veteran. Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Mayer has spent many hours visiting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Recently, he was recognized for visiting his 500th soldier. Wounded Warrior Project is a non-profit organization, which works to raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs.
The MedAssets President's Award was presented to Natalee Kestler of Baxter BioScience for showing strong leadership and delivering consistent, superior value to healthcare providers and representing the best in her profession.
The second annual Lifetime Financial Improvement Award, which recognizes the healthcare provider that has demonstrated and signed off on the greatest financial savings over a multi-year agreement with MedAssets, was presented to St. Joseph Health System for saving over $119 million. St. Joseph Health System was also the recipient of the Customer of the Year Enterprise President's Award for achieving financial excellence, being a good industry steward and demonstrating leadership to transparency.
Best Practice Enterprise President's Awards for financial achievements, industry stewardship, innovation and demonstrated leadership to transparency were presented to 26 customers.
Customer of the Year and Best Practice Customer awards were also presented to 130 customers of MedAssets Revenue Management, MedAssets Net Revenue Systems, MedAssets Supply Chain Management and MedAssets Supply Chain Systems.
The MedAssets Healthcare Business Summit is designed to provide attendees with opportunities for continuing education, interaction with peers, and discussion of new ideas and action steps on common problems. A day of the event was devoted to the 2008 Performance Forum, an all-encompassing educational event with education tracks covering different disciplines and levels of management. This year the keynote speaker for the forum was Dr. Joe Parent, a corporate speaker, PGA tour instructor and best-selling author. Parent is a renowned instructor of the mental game, teaching hundreds of professionals and amateurs in golf and other sports, as well as top executives seeking cutting-edge business insights.
Sponsorship support of the annual meeting was a key component to the event's success. In addition to the Strategic Sponsor, Office Max, other corporations sponsoring the educational events and golf outing benefiting Hire Heroes USA included Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Companies, Abbott, Roche Diagnostics and NCI.
For more information about the MedAssets' 2008 Healthcare Business Summit, and meeting sponsors, please visit www.medassets.com.
About MedAssets
MedAssets (NASDAQ: MDAS) partners with healthcare providers to improve their financial strength by implementing integrated spend management and revenue cycle solutions that help control cost, improve margins and cash flow, increase regulatory compliance, and optimize operational efficiency. MedAssets serves more than 125 health systems, including 2,500 hospitals and 30,000 non-acute care healthcare providers.