Harris tapped to aid VA collection efforts

Harris Corp. won a $72 million contract to expand and improve the Veterans Affairs Department's billing and collection activities for 16 of its networks and associated medical centers.

Under the contract, Harris will spend one to three years expanding the agency’s Consolidated Patient Account Center business model, which will create regional patient account centers that operate under centralized controls. Work on the contract will enhance billing and collection from third parties, which can involve several different health care and insurance providers, the company said.

A pilot project based in Asheville, N.C., was completed for the VA in 2006 by Patriot Technologies, a company that Harris acquired three years later. That project had an 18 percent increase in collections, which was considered a new benchmark for revenue operations throughout the VA.

“This contract reflects the successful blending of Patriot’s longtime technical expertise supporting the VA’s unique requirements with the information security technology and systems integration expertise of Harris,” said Jim Traficant, vice president of Harris Healthcare Solutions.

Harris is ranked No. 13 on Washington Technology's 2009 Top 100 list of the largest government contractors.