Understanding The Demand
Healthcare is one of the fastest changing and most politically sensitive aspects of our nation's economy. With more than one million healthcare providers in the United States filing over one trillion claims by the end of 1999, here's what some of the industry leaders and national publications are saying:
Computers In Health Care – "About 80% of all healthcare claims originate in the physician's office, but only 3% of these claims are automated. The vast majority are processed manually."
Entrepreneur Magazine – Listing medical claims processing as "One of the top 15 home-based computer businesses..... medical claims processing, though it barely existed 10 years ago, has become a multimillion dollar industry by helping patients and doctors file their insurance claims efficiently."
Physicians Financial News – "The push for electronic medical claims processing is quickly gaining steam and momentum. Several groups have now laid proposals on the table. The goal: All medical claims are to be processed electronically by the end of the decade."
The Wall Street Journal – "The U.S. health-insurance industry is stepping up efforts to solve one of the most intractable problems in the war on health costs: the processing of medical claims. Spurred by political and competitive forces, private insurance carriers are aiming to replace the morass of paper choking the nation's healthcare system with the sort of electronic transaction technology used by banks and airlines."
Medical Economics – "Nearly every doctor who uses the service agrees that electronic claims filing reduces paperwork, cuts staff and time costs, and improves communications with insurance carriers. Most importantly, payment is dramatically faster."
Medicare News (Part B) – A note sent to physicians by Medicare stated that Medicare claims submitted electronically will receive preferential treatment over claims submitted manually. The notice stated that electronic claims would continue to be paid in fourteen days and the manual claims would be paid no sooner than twenty-seven days following receipt.
