ACU-Serve brings ‘transparency’ to infusion services

AKRON, Ohio – ACU-Serve has hired Heather Randel to build out an Infusion Division in a move that allows the company to increase its services to specialty providers and play an important role in improving their intake. 

The company named Randel, whose billing and collections experience spans hospitals, specialty pharmacies and ambulatory infusion centers, as vice president of operations for the division in August. 

“Several of our hospital HMEs also have a home infusion entity, so it is a natural fit to allow our services to expand to help other aspects of our client's businesses,” said Jim Knight, president and CEO of ACU-Serve. “Adding Heather and her team allows us to expand our current services into intake services, where the importance is far greater in infusion than even in HME.” 

ACU-Serve has been building out different areas of its business since receiving a majority growth investment from Lovell Minnick Partners in 2023. Earlier this year, the company acquired Beyond HME and brought onboard Kyle Neese to increase its services in CPAP resupply. 

Because not all providers have the specialists on staff to navigate the ins and outs of billing and collections for infusion, outsourcing some or all those functions can help them prioritize their relationships with doctors and patients, Randel says. 

“Medicare is a beast,” she said. “There are so many different rules. You may be able to look at the billing and coding guide that a manufacturer puts out for a new drug and think you can bill with a certain diagnosis code only to learn it needs to be something different. Then things can change on a quarterly or yearly basis.” 

ACU-Serve also brings technology to bear that Randel says she would have loved to have when she was on the provider side. The company’s software, for example, allows providers to see what claims are continually being rebilled and why. 

“It gives you the ability to see where those trends are and fix them on the front end, so the denials stop happening,” she said. “It’s transparent and it’s at your fingertips.” 

Randel’s charge to build out ACU-Serve’s division is one she’s experienced at and comfortable with. 

“We have a couple of people coming on and as we get more clients, we’ll keep adding to our team,” she said. “It’s something I did at a previous company. I started out on the intake side of things, built out that division, got it to where it could successfully support hundreds of referrals, and then moved to revenue cycle management and built that team. We’ll grow the team with the company.”