If there is anything positive to take away from the Covid-19 era it would be how it forced health plans and providers to work together and face the tidal wave of stressed healthcare systems by thinking outside the box. The quick adoption of innovative technologies assisted many to navigate changing policies and uncertain social behaviors, helping health plans and systems surf where they should have floundered.
While we have taken a giant leap in the adoption of forward-thinking tech in healthcare, new findings in the 2021 CAQH Index show that these adoptions have led to higher cost savings opportunities for both healthcare providers and plans.
Let’s take a closer look at the findings and identify how you can take advantage of cost savings opportunities in your health plan.
Adoption of electronic administrative tech
Social distancing, patient fears, and overworked staff…2020 exhausted everyone. The world turned upside down overnight and nowhere was this felt more than in healthcare. Health providers and plans had to overhaul their set-in-stone processes and introduce new technologies to enable administrative staff to work from home and lessen in-person interactions.
As great as these adoptions were, there was one caveat: as these new technologies were implemented, they came with an uptick in manual administrative tasks and time-consuming manual work.
While they made it possible (and easier) for patients to get the medical care that they needed, especially in underserved populations, these technologies introduced gaps in processes and systems, and increased cost savings opportunities.
Transaction volume and spend
“Out of $391 billion spent on administrative complexity in the US healthcare system, $42 billion is spent conducting administrative transactions.”
That’s the ‘grimace’ news. Don’t worry; there’s ‘smile’ news, too.
Even though that number seems really high, we can save an extra $20 billion annually by transitioning to fully electronic transactions. That number decreases, however, when we consider that fully electronic transactions also mean an increase in total spending.
“Despite the decrease in overall medical transaction volume and growth in electronic adoption, total annual medical spend increased (12%) as manual transactions required more intensive intervention from providers to ensure that newly implemented requirements and codes were executed correctly, and that patient medical records were current and accurate.”
How can we turn that 12% medical increase into 12% savings instead?
Everyone loves savings
Here’s the “smile” news: It’s absolutely possible to flip that switch. We’ve already saved $166 billion annually by automating some administrative transactions. What if we took that a step further and automated more repetitive manual tasks? Especially using a solution that was created specifically for claims processing.
If time is money then automation is worth double its monetary value.
Take advantage of cost savings opportunities, and contact us to learn more about what automating administrative tasks could do for you.