UJB offers health-care payment processing.

UJB Financial Corp. is offering health-care payment processing services to its customers, becoming one of the first banks to enter this potential growth market.

The Princeton, N.J. -based bank will electronically process claims and payments for healthcare providers through a service deal with Equifax Inc.

Cooperative Healthcare Networks, a division of Equifax Healthcare Information Services, provides SlatLink - a raft of electronic data interchange services - to software vendors, health insurers, and billing services as well as banks.

UJB is only the second bank to sign on directly to StatLink since it was first offered in 1991. (StatLink's first banking customer, Barnett Banks Inc., started using the service in early 1993.)

Customers of UJB's United Jersey and First Valley banks will be able to automate their claims submission, check verification, claims status, eligibility checks, and preadmission certification.

Physicians and hospitals will also have access to other electronic options, such as on-line banking and credit card processing.

For UJB Financial, centered in an area with a high concentration of medical

professionals and hospitals, health-care servicing has long been a concern, according to Thomas Fen-is, the regional vice president for UJB's Healthcare Financial Services Group.

Although political changes may soon drastically affect the health-care system, Mr. Ferris said that now more than ever, medical professionals are looking for ways to advance and streamline the processes in this arena.

"This business is always going to be here," Mr. Ferris said. "And since the changes may mean a curtailment of income for the physicians, health-care providers are looking more closely at what they're doing."

UJB Financial's Healthcare Financial Services Group, originally called the Medical Banking Group, was created more than 12 years ago to focus on providing lending and products to health care professionals.

The bank handles accounts for 30% of New Jersey's 83 hospitals and 10% to 15% of the state's 18,000 physicians, Mr. Ferris said.

He hopes that making these electronic services available will solidify the bank's customer relationships and gain UJB greater market share among health-care providers.

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