Eight health insurers, including Aetna, Cigna and Anthem Blue Cross, have joined in a one-year pilot program to create an online portal for Ohio physicians’ offices to file and follow claims, according to a published report.
Participating health plans also include: Humana, Kaiser Permanente, Medical Mutual of Ohio, UnitedHealthcare, and WellCare Health Plans Inc., covering about 91 percent of Ohioans with insurance, The Dayton Business Journal reports.
The one-year pilot program, an online service provided by Jacksonville, Fla.-based Availity Health Information Network, will officially launch to providers in November throughout Ohio, the paper says on its Web site.
The pilot also is taking place in New Jersey at the same time, and is expected to spread nationally according to the findings, the paper said.
Officials said the portal could save providers throughout the country hundreds of billions of dollars through administrative simplification.
It will be available free of charge to physicians offices throughout the state and is meant to cut down on administrative costs by giving offices one location to electronically check eligibility, arrange referrals, check coverage and follow and file claims.
About 20,000 licensed physicians throughout Ohio could conceivably enroll in the program, according to Mark Jarvis, senior director of practice economics at the Ohio State Medical Association. Jarvis said all physicians offices would have access to the online portal, through which eight of the top health insurance companies’ information will be available, though the portal will not immediately be available to physicians in hospitals.
Jarvis estimated physicians spend more than three hours per week just on administration, while their office staffs spend more than 58 hours. The administrative cost of the typical way of following eligibility and claims – through fax and phone calls – can add up to nearly $8 per action, while through the portal, it will cost providers just $1.
