BREAKING NEWS: Health plans collaborate to streamline health insurance paperwork in New Jersey
Posted by The Campaign on February 11, 2010 at 4:50 AM
The New York Times today reports on the announcement by health plans in New Jersey to launch a pilot program to “offer doctors and hospitals the ability to use a single Web portal to check a patient’s coverage and track claims”. A few excerpts are below:
• “As part of the discussion last year over how best to overhaul the nation’s health care system, the insurance industry promised to do its part by tackling the burdensome paperwork involved in paying medical claims. Despite the health care legislation’s impasse in Congress, the insurers say they still plan to make good on their promise.”
• “The effort is aimed at one of the most vexing problems in the nation’s insurance system: hospitals and doctors spend enormous amounts of time and money trying to determine whether a patient has coverage or why a claim was denied. Tens of billions of dollars each year are said to be wasted because of such administrative inefficiency.”
• “’The pilots are a great example of the industry’s commitment to voluntarily make progress eliminating the administrative hassles that physicians face,’ said Ronald Williams, the chief executive of Aetna.”
• “The promise to produce significant savings through streamlining paperwork was made as part of the industry’s discussions in June with the White House. But the pilot project effort has taken place parallel to the general discussions over the health care legislation, said Karen Ignagni, the president of America’s Health Insurance Plans. The move by the insurers to develop standards and systems to make it easier for doctors to determine a patient’s coverage and get paid will continue regardless of the status of any federal legislation, she said.”
• “’We wanted to make sure we were taking a leap,’ said Ms. Ignagni, who said the two state projects were a way for the insurers to test different Web systems and see what technology worked best for the hospitals and doctors before eventually beginning other efforts.”
For the full article, click here.
