NJ.com
Two trade groups for the health insurance industry carried out some reform of their own Thursday by launching a statewide program that will make it easier and less expensive for doctors to provide care to their patients.
The program will provide doctors’ offices with a single way of accessing dozens of different health plans administered by five major insurers, including Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey.
The scope of the program, which is similar to one launched earlier in Ohio, is enormous because the five insurers represent roughly 95 percent of all New Jersey residents with private health insurance.
Even as the prospect of national health care reform remains up in the air, major insurance providers continued to move ahead on an objective of their own: to simplify and streamline the administrative issues, such as billing and specialist referrals, that constantly tie up and tax doctors’ offices.
The program works by using a single website operated by Cambridge, Mass.-based Navinet, which is the nation’s largest healthcare communications network.
"This makes the process much more efficient,’’ said Thomas Ortiz, a family doctor in Newark. "Doctors always complain that they’re dealing with 50 different insurance companies with 50 different methodologies. You can understand how a standardized process would improve the bottom line.’’
The program, which is sponsored by America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, will be permanent. After the first year, it will be evaluated before it is rolled out in other states.
"The ultimate goal is to have state-wide or regional-wide portals that span the country,’’ said Susan Pisano, spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans.
Christy Bell, senior vice president of healthcare professional services management at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey, said Thursday during a conference call announcing the program that one physician estimated his office spends between $60,000 and $100,000 a year just handling administrative issues — or required paperwork.
"We think we can remove a quarter to a third of those costs through streamlining and standardization,’’ Bell said.
The administrative work inside a physician’s office ranges from making telephone calls and sending faxes to specialist’s offices to verifying a patient’s coverage and co-pay information. It involves navigating healthcare data migration among dozens of insurance plans which require their own security and log-in codes.
"This,’’ Ortiz said, "will eliminate a lot of the hassles for primary care physicians.’’
The program will provide doctors’ offices with a single way of accessing dozens of different health plans administered by five major insurers, including Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey.
The scope of the program, which is similar to one launched earlier in Ohio, is enormous because the five insurers represent roughly 95 percent of all New Jersey residents with private health insurance.
Even as the prospect of national health care reform remains up in the air, major insurance providers continued to move ahead on an objective of their own: to simplify and streamline the administrative issues, such as billing and specialist referrals, that constantly tie up and tax doctors’ offices.
The program works by using a single website operated by Cambridge, Mass.-based Navinet, which is the nation’s largest healthcare communications network.
"This makes the process much more efficient,’’ said Thomas Ortiz, a family doctor in Newark. "Doctors always complain that they’re dealing with 50 different insurance companies with 50 different methodologies. You can understand how a standardized process would improve the bottom line.’’
The program, which is sponsored by America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, will be permanent. After the first year, it will be evaluated before it is rolled out in other states.
"The ultimate goal is to have state-wide or regional-wide portals that span the country,’’ said Susan Pisano, spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans.
Christy Bell, senior vice president of healthcare professional services management at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey, said Thursday during a conference call announcing the program that one physician estimated his office spends between $60,000 and $100,000 a year just handling administrative issues — or required paperwork.
"We think we can remove a quarter to a third of those costs through streamlining and standardization,’’ Bell said.
The administrative work inside a physician’s office ranges from making telephone calls and sending faxes to specialist’s offices to verifying a patient’s coverage and co-pay information. It involves navigating healthcare data migration among dozens of insurance plans which require their own security and log-in codes.
"This,’’ Ortiz said, "will eliminate a lot of the hassles for primary care physicians.’’
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