BlueCross BlueShield of Florida and Humana are kicking off an initiative designed to speed real-time claims adjudication. The two health plans are already partners in Availity, a claims processing gateway. With this initiative, they plan to expand the effort to other payers, claims clearinghouses and practice management groups, the groups said in their press release. Physician groups that participate in this phase of the RTCA rollout must use physician physician revenue, clinical cycle management and EMR platform Athenahealth. The plans already work with physicians using healthcare revenue cycle management platform ZirMed, which runs the practices for most of Humana's existing RTCA participants.
Expect to see more efforts of this kind as consumer-driven policies become more popular. Given their high deductibles, it will become more important than ever for providers to know just how much the insurer will pay--and how much they must collect on the spot from patients. More than ever, practices will need to consider RTCA compatibility when they're buying or upgrading practice management software.
To get more background on this effort:
- see the Humana/BCBSFL release [1]
- learn more about ZirMed [2]
- run the Athenahealth demo [3]
Related Article:
Smart card medical debit cards are on the rise--and will probably see their greatest use as a means of shunting HSA funds to providers. Article [4]
Links:
[1] http://www.athenahealth.org/articles/press/2006-10-23.php
[2] http://www.zirmed.com/public/index.aspx
[3] http://www.athenahealth.org/tools/online-demo.php
[4] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/smart-medical-debit-cards-on-the-rise/2006-10-16