Ignagni: Technology is the Right Prompt Pay Strategy
WASHINGTON, May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The proportion of insurance claims
submitted to health plans electronically has more than tripled in the last
decade, reducing administrative costs and significantly speeding up
payments to doctors and hospitals.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040830/AHIPLOGO )
A new study released today by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
shows that three-quarters of all health insurance claims are now submitted
electronically, up from 24 percent in 1995, allowing 98 percent of claims
to be processed within a month of receipt from the health care provider.
Further, the study found that insurers now process a majority of claims
within a week of receipt.
"The concerted efforts of health insurance plans to speed claims
payment and cut administrative costs have already led to significant
improvement and savings," said AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni.
The study notes that it costs an insurance company an average of 85
cents to process a "clean" claim submitted electronically compared to $1.58
to process a paper claim. Given the huge and growing volume of health
insurance claims the industry processes each year, the shift to electronic
submission and processing saves consumers several billion dollars annually,
Ignagni said.
Much of the change has come in the last four years. In 2002, just 44
percent of claims were submitted electronically, compared to 75 percent
today.
There is often a significant delay before health insurance plans
receive claims from health care providers, especially for those claims
still submitted on paper. In 2006, nearly 3 claims in ten were received
more than 30 days after the date of patient service, with one-third of the
paper claims not reaching the insurer for 60 days or more.
"These data clearly show the best way to speed claims payment and to
further reduce administrative costs is not through costly, new 'prompt pay'
mandates, but rather to continue encouraging greater use of electronic
claims submission," Ignagni said
She noted that health insurance plans are also using technology to
prevent fraud and to ensure that the claims are valid. Claims that are
delayed or "pended" because they are incomplete, incorrect or duplicative
take on average an extra 9 days for processing, adding to costs and slowing
payment.
The study is based on aggregated data from nearly 25 million claims
processed by a sample of 26 health insurance companies of various sizes
throughout the United States.
The full report is available at
http://www.ahipresearch.org/pdfs/PromptPayFinalDraft.pdf
America's Health Insurance Plans -- Providing Health Benefits
to More Than 200 Million Americans
SOURCE America's Health Insurance Plans
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Related links:
http://www.ahip.org
Photo Notes:
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PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
CONTACT:
Larry Akey of America's Health Insurance
Plans, +1-202-778-8493
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