Millennium Physician Group (MPG)

Driving efficiency in Healthcare Finance with Basware

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Industry:

Healthcare

Regions:

North America

Solutions:

AP Automation, SmartPDF

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Navigating Financial Challenges in Healthcare

The healthcare industry faces escalating pressures to deliver high-quality care while managing costs and adhering to stringent regulations. A critical factor impacting financial performance and sustainability is indirect spend which can account for up to 40% of healthcare organizations’ total spend, often fragmented, complex, and difficult to manage. Optimizing this area is essential for healthcare providers to simplify operations, support growth, and enhance financial control.

Millennium Physician Group (MPG), a prominent Accountable Care Organization (ACO) with over 300 locations, confronted significant challenges in managing its spending. To transform its financial processes and improve operational efficiency, MPG partnered with Basware, a leading Accounts Payable software solution provider, and Extropy Advisors, a consulting and implementation firm with deep expertise in healthcare finance. Extropy Advisors played a vital role in guiding MPG through each step of the Basware implementation, providing invaluable insights, hands-on support, and tailored solutions to fit MPG’s unique needs

Aiming to enhance financial efficiency and streamline operations, MPG’s collaboration with Basware and Extropy has set new standards for financial performance within healthcare finance.

Key takeaways

0-59%

Spend under control

3-day

invoice approval, down from 15 days

5%

exception rate, down from 20%

MPG's Challenges

Overcoming a Paper-based System and Lack of Visibility

Before implementing Basware, MPG’s financial operations were manual and paper-based, leading to inefficiencies, errors, and delays. Without a Purchase Order (PO) system, MPG had limited visibility into spending, which drove up processing costs. Shelly DuVall, AP MPPS Optimization Coordinator at MPG, explained: “Before Basware, everything was hard copies. We had no control over invoices coming in and going out, no centralization. Now, we have visibility into every step of the invoice process, allowing us to manage operations more effectively.

MPG's Objectives - Streamlining Operations and Supporting Growth

MPG sought to:

  • Simplify and standardize processes to reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and increase speed.
  • Enable scalability and integrate with other systems.
  • Enhance expense and cash flow management, elevate spend visibility, control, and maximize savings and rebates

Before Basware, everything was hard copies. We had no control over invoices coming in and going out, no centralization. Now, we have visibility into every step of the invoice process, allowing us to manage operations more effectively.

Shelly DuVall, AP MPPS Optimization Coordinator at MPG

Implementing Basware for Comprehensive Financial Management

With Basware’s e-Procurement, e-Invoicing, AP Automation, and Spend Analytics solutions, and guided by Extropy Advisors, MPG achieved a complete overhaul of its financial processes. The integration with MPG’s ERP system facilitated seamless data flow and process automation. Pam Kebbel, MPG’s Purchasing Manager, emphasized:

“With Basware, everything is consolidated under one umbrella. We can track spending volumes, approvals, and process transparency across departments”

SmartPDF: Automating and Transforming Invoice Management

A significant aspect of MPG’s transformation was the implementation of Basware’s SmartPDF technology, which played a critical role in streamlining invoice processing and data entry. Leveraging advanced optical character recognition (OCR) with AI, SmartPDF reads incoming invoices as they enter the system, automatically extracting essential data such as vendor names, dates, amounts, and more. This data is then pre-populated into the Basware platform, eliminating the need for manual entry and greatly reducing human error.

Before SmartPDF, MPG’s AP staff had to manually enter each invoice detail—a labor-intensive task that created bottlenecks, increased processing time, and demanded frequent overtime from staff. With thousands of invoices processed monthly, this manual workload often led to delays and errors. Now, according to Shelly DuVal,

“SmartPDF has transformed how we handle invoices. It reads the invoices, captures critical details, and pre-populates them in Basware. Our team no longer has to type everything in by hand, saving us hours each week.”

Beyond saving time, SmartPDF has allowed MPG’s AP team to focus on more strategic tasks, such as managing vendor relations, troubleshooting payment issues, and analyzing spending patterns. “Now we have more time for other responsibilities, and staff are able to avoid overtime and take vacations without worrying about falling behind,” DuVal shared. "This shift from data entry to higher-value activities has contributed to increased job satisfaction and efficiency across the department.”

In addition, the automation provided by SmartPDF has significantly improved MPG’s data accuracy and financial auditability. By reducing manual entry, MPG lowered the risk of human error and enhanced the reliability of its financial records. This improvement in accuracy has led to faster, more reliable reporting and improved compliance. The integration of SmartPDF with MPG’s ERP system has also streamlined data flow, providing a comprehensive view of the organization’s financial transactions and performance.

This shift from data entry to higher-value activities has contributed to increased job satisfaction and efficiency across the department.

Shelly DuVall, AP MPPS Optimization Coordinator at MPG

Results

The adoption of Basware’s solutions, particularly SmartPDF, enabled MPG to realize significant performance gains:

  • A 58% increase in spend control, with 60% rate of touchless processing.
  • A 95% on-time or early payment rate for invoices.
  • Cut processing time by 92%.
  • Reduction in Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) staffing needs and manual processing costs.
  • Enhanced data quality and analytics supporting better decision-making.

As DuVal summarized: “With Basware, we no longer need overtime. Processes are simpler, and spend management and vendor interactions have improved significantly.

Key Performance Indicators: Measuring Success

MPG’s transformation yielded impressive KPI improvements:

  • Invoice cycle time reduced from 30 days to 5 days.
  • Invoice approval time reduced from 15 days to 3 days.
  • Exception rate dropped from 20% to 5%.
  • Matching rate increased from 70% to 95%.
  • 0% to 59% spend under control.

MPG are setting a New Standard in Healthcare Finance

The collaborative efforts of MPG, Basware, and Extropy Advisors have redefined financial efficiency in healthcare finance. According to Kebbel, “Basware enables us to centralize purchasing, allowing clinical staff to focus on patient care.” MPG’s journey with Basware underscores the value of digital transformation, setting a benchmark for operational excellence and financial optimization in healthcare.

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