CHARLOTTE, NC – January 12, 2010 - Preferred Medical Marketing Corporation (PMMC) announces that fourteen (14) Alliant Management Services (AMS) hospitals recently purchased PMMC Online Pricing.  Online Pricing helps hospitals to address pricing transparency and financial stability.   

AMS is based in Louisville, KY, and the hospitals are located in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and North Carolina.  Most AMS facilities are critical access hospitals.  Many of them recognized that their charge description masters (CDMs) were in need of attention related to competitive pricing and appropriate charges. 

PMMC Online Pricing is an internet-based benchmarking tool that allows hospitals to compare their pricing and charge distributions pattern(s) to other hospitals locally, regionally, and nationally using publicly available data.  The current interest in price transparency makes it important for hospitals to be able to compare their charges against their competitors and their peers.   

PMMC Online Pricing has customizable market definitions for data analysis in the aggregate, the service level, the MS-DRG level, and even for room rates and HCPCS/CPT® codes.  Users benefit from the case-mix adjusting methodology that ensures statistically valid comparisons of hospitals of different sizes and service capabilities.   

Describing the decision to go with PMMC for the AMS hospitals, Earl Wolff, Senior VP of Finance at AMS explained, “Alliant went through a review process that started with a group of CEOs and then a group of CFOs to evaluate the content and usefulness of PMMC Online Pricing.  After both groups recommended the product, we let our hospitals see a presentation and decide whether they wanted to purchase or not.  We had 13 sign up in a month alone, so I think it is fair to say they see value in the product and the offering that was on the table.”   

Since 1978, AMS has provided innovative support systems in virtually all areas of hospital management. The AMS goal is to work with the board of trustees of a hospital or health system to identify opportunities to streamline operations to create efficiencies without compromising the level of care provided to the community.  AMS is owned by Blue and Company, a regional accounting firm based in Carmel, IN. 

According to Palmer Hamilton, Vice President at PMMC, “this relationship started with work we did with Blue and Company.  Blue gave us access to AMS leadership with an endorsement.  Whay we found was a group of hospitals with real needs and a desire for an affordable solution.  Critical Access Hospital CFOs have limited staff so they need tools that work quickly and efficiently.  PMMC is pleased to deliver what they need.”