BILLERICA, Mass., June 24, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Orbograph, a premier supplier of electronic/paper automation solutions in healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM), as well as recognition software for U.S. check and lockbox processing markets, announced today the public release of the 2014 Strategic Healthcare Payments Research Initiative.
The independent survey was designed by John Casillas, Chief Executive Officer of BoardTrust and founder of the Medical Banking Project that was acquired by HIMSS in 2009. The survey is intended to foster better understanding of electronic business transformation in the U.S. healthcare system. BoardTrust also believes electronic business platforms will better enable consumers to manage healthcare-related expenses and fundamentally transform market dynamics, reducing costs dramatically and offering innovative new services.
Working with the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management (AAHAM) to promote the survey, BoardTrust received 114 U.S.-based hospital responses on the topic of benchmarking electronic business practices including electronic payment adoption. Highlights of the report include:
- Top revenue cycle management priorities of respondents were denials management and point-of-service collections
- Nearly one-third of hospital respondents submit 60-89% of their claims electronically
- One-half of the hospitals who responded still receive 25%+ of their remittances as paper EOB's (explanation of benefits forms)
- Overall ANSI X.12 835 (electronic remittance) market penetration was estimated at 63.4%
- 91% were satisfied with EDI adoption
- 39% were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with their EOB processing efficiency
- Only 53% responded that reassociation was important/very important
The survey included 23 questions addressing business office statistics and processes, revenue cycle improvements and demographic classification. Questions gathered empirical data to measure adoption of electronic business practices in healthcare, an area of focus within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
"Besides what I would refer to as disappointing results in electronic payments adoption," stated Joe Gregory, Vice President of Marketing at Orbograph, "there appears to be a paradox in the industry. One half of the respondents were still processing 25% paper and the overall electronic payment penetration is estimated to be near 60%. Meanwhile, satisfaction levels toward EDI adoption with hospital revenue cycle managers are 91%! There is a clear disconnect between expectations of industry influencers and actual achievements."
"Manual processes are being transformed using technology, but as the survey findings suggests, this process is slow moving, adding greatly to the cost of healthcare. Great ideas that transform paper-burdened operations to fully automated platforms need greater visibility," Casillas said. "BoardTrust seeks to find these ideas and inform key influencers. The 2014 Strategic Healthcare Payments Initiative is our first step for launching a global effort. We are actively engaging the private sector," he explained, "because having innovators at the table is critical as we drive our vision to convert digital savings into charitable resources." He will be speaking on the topic at the Health Management Asia 2014 conference (August 28-29, 2014) in Cebu, Philippines, as well as serving on a 4-judge panel for awards that will be given at the event that draws over 1,000 healthcare executives in the Asia Pacific region.
"We are pleased to support BoardTrust in this Research Initiative. We believe this information will be very beneficial to our provider clients, as well as business partners and industry stakeholders," said Barry Cohen, Co-President of Orbograph. The data affirms that there is still a lot of untapped value in transforming revenue cycle operations from paper-based to digital processing. Our action item from this survey is to develop additional educational programs on the benefits of electronification and methods to achieve straight-through-processing of payments and remittances."
The 2014 Strategic Healthcare Payments Research Initiative is available on the Orbograph website, and can be downloaded at http://www.orbograph.com/2014-strategic-healthcare-payments-research-initiative.htm.
About Orbograph
Orbograph (http://www.orbograph.com), a subsidiary of Orbotech, is a premier supplier of electronic/paper automation solutions in healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM), recognition software for the U.S. check and lockbox processing markets. Orbograph technologies are in use in over 1,500 financial institutions, service bureaus and billers processing billions of checks and claims annually. Orbograph solutions are utilized by 20 of the top 30 U.S. financial institutions with in-house check processing. The Orbograph Healthcare Payments Automation Center (HPAC) is a cloud-based platform which enables payment transformation by converting paper-based correspondence and EOBs, normalizes ANSI X12 EDI 835 remittances and reconciles EFT/ACH payments to ERAs via reassociation. HPAC automates posting of receivables into practice management systems, achieving straight-through processing levels of efficiency.
NOTE: Actual performance may vary according to hardware used, configuration or other factors within your processing environment. Statistics cited in this release do not constitute guarantees of performance. For more information, visit us online at http://www.orbograph.com.
This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/06/prweb11970933.htm