PFS Clinical Launched to Provide Turnkey Administrative Solutions for Clinical Research Institutions

PharmaSeek Financial Services, LLC announced the launch of PFS Clinical, an outsourced services firm offering turnkey administration solutions for clinical research institutions. With a primary focus on office administration, compliance, and financial reconciliation, PFS Clinical experts will manage such crucial tasks as coverage analysis, budget and contract negotiations, claims review, and revenue cycle management. For current clients, all services will continue to be provided as high quality deliverables that will now be offered under the PFS Clinical brand.

“With clinical staff already stretched to the breaking point, it is increasingly difficult for many clinical research programs to operate in compliance with complex regulations and requirements. Billing and revenue cycle management also suffers when internal resources are overwhelmed, with potentially devastating results, as one missed bill can cause a chain reaction that implodes the bottom line,” said Megan Tenboer, Director of Strategic Site Operations at PFS Clinical. “Our experts are masters at the balancing act necessary to comply with evolving billing requirements. They have deep industry experience in all facets of a centralized clinical trial office, and greatly help to guide clinical research programs across an often rocky administrative terrain.”

PFS Clinical offers a full slate of turnkey administrative solutions based upon proven processes that address the key pain points of establishing and running a clinical trial office. These include:

• Revenue cycle management (RCM)
• Coverage analysis (CA)
• Short-term study financing
• Budget and contract review and negotiation
• Claims review
• Study development within Clinical Trial Management Systems (CTMS)
• Corporate marketing, study advertising, and patient recruitment
• Business development

PFS Clinical eliminates the disconnect between clinical trial expenses and revenue streams, prepares the financial infrastructure to support accrual-based accounting, tracks receivables and collections, reconciles payments and recovers lost revenues. This includes setting clinical trial programs on solid financial footing with expert CA and contract/budget review and negotiation services focused on maximizing per-patient fees and administrative items paid by the sponsoring organization—often including its own services.

Importantly, PFS Clinical staff operates remotely, eliminating any overhead or training expenses on behalf of the client and limiting disruptions during partnership onboarding. Partnering with PFS Clinical will decrease study start-up timelines, overhead costs, and internal training, while truly allowing personnel to refocus their attention to quality patient care.

Outsourcing clinical research administration to PFS Clinical delivers tangible results. For one client, its expert contract/budget review and negotiation services netted a nearly 50% increase in per-patient fees and a 400% increase in covered administrative items for management of a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease trial. Another client realized an approximate increase in per-patient fees of 24% and a more than 188% increase in covered administrative items for a study related to Actinic Keratosis.

During the initial reconciliation process for another clinical study, PFS Clinical identified $143,000 in net additional revenue that had not been recognized, as well as pass-through costs that needed to be invoiced to the sponsors. After turning over all billing and A/R activities to PFS Clinical, that site saw the number of accounts over 120 days decline rapidly. Other benefits realized from partnering with PFS Clinical are greater availability on the organization’s credit line and a decrease in interest costs.

The value realized from engaging the expert consultants with PFS Clinical doesn’t end with the trial. For one client, its audit of six recently closed studies resulted in recovery of $45,000 from the Sponsor for unpaid patient visits. When the pilot later expanded, PFS identified and collected 80% of an additional $290,000 in uncollected revenue.

“Outsourcing clinical research administration to PFS Clinical alleviates all the major pain points involved in running a successful, financially sound and compliant study,” said Pam Lowery, Director of Site Services at PFS Clinical. “Financial and senior managers benefit from accurate accruals, improved collections, a stronger bottom line, and better financial controls. Study coordinators can focus on core responsibilities that were taking a back seat to time-consuming administrative tasks. Finally, physicians can focus on the clinical—rather than the business—side of their research.”

About PFS Clinical

PFS Clinical is dedicated to helping clinical research sites improve the management of their clinical research program from study start-up to final payment. Our seasoned professionals provide turnkey business solutions that allow site personnel to refocus their attention to patient care. Clients include academic medical centers, hospitals, dedicated research sites, multi-specialty practices and trial/site management organizations. Staffed by experts with relevant experience in clinical research administration, PFS Clinical’s suite of services include coverage analysis, revenue cycle management, budget and contract negotiation, claims review, corporate marketing, study advertisements, patient recruitment, and business development. For more information visit www.pfsclinical.com.