St. Michael’s Hospital, located in Toronto, currently employs HYPE Medical, a system developed by HYPE Systems Inc., for billing OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) for all services rendered by its approximately 250 physicians. This usage extends not only to the hospital itself but also to its associated community clinics.
The St. Michael’s Hospital Physicians Association (SMPA) handles all billing matters for the Department of Medicine Associates at St. Michael’s Hospital. These responsibilities span 14 medical specialties, providing a broad scope of medical practice areas within the hospital.
The core responsibilities of the SMPA include processing all types of billings such as those related to OHIP, collecting receipts, and maintaining the accounting records and internal financial statements for the Department of Medicine Associates.
In 2019, the SMPA issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) with a specific goal in mind - to replace the then-existing legacy software system. The aim was to implement a more modern, browser or app-based billing software, that is certified to work with OHIP and can uphold the financial integrity of the SMPA's operations.
This modern billing software was required to be installed and consistently maintained by a vendor that could provide high-quality resources and robust support mechanisms. Ultimately, this move was designed to enhance the efficiency of the SMPA's operations and upgrade their billing processes.
The primary objective was to engage a vendor that could supply, configure, implement, and manage a unified browser or app-based billing software. This software had to be certified to work with OHIP and be adaptable for use in a multidisciplinary environment, replacing two distinct billing programs previously in use.
In the summer of 2019, HYPE Systems emerged as the winner of the SMPA’s RFP. They were given the responsibility to configure their OHIP Billing Software, HYPE Medical, for all physicians practicing at St. Michael’s Hospital and the affiliated community clinics.
By spring 2021, the hospital-specific version of HYPE Medical, known as HYPE Hospital, was launched, incorporating 10 years of St. Michael’s Hospital patient billing history that had been migrated into the new system. In the fall of the same year, HYPE Medical received a significant hardware/performance upgrade and its first major update within St. Michael’s Hospital.
As of December 2021, all users of HYPE Medical received access to the latest features, including those available in HYPE Hospital. At this point, HYPE Hospital also became available to other hospitals throughout Ontario. Updates based on end user feature requests continued to be incorporated into HYPE Medical in Spring 2022.
The solution to the SMPA's initial requirement came in the form of HYPE Medical. This is an OHIP/Medical billing system/enterprise server that has been developed, hosted, and managed by Hype Systems Inc., based in Burlington, Ontario, since 2006. It is a testament to the company's commitment to continuous improvement and adaptation to user needs.
