Automating Claims Process Plays Critical Role in Expediting Reimbursement Process

IVANS, Inc. a national health information exchange, announced results from a study that showed more than 93 percent of healthcare providers surveyed believe Medicare is fair either all or most of the time with claims reimbursements.

Sixty five percent of those respondents also said Medicaid is fair either all or most of the time. In contrast, 62 percent of those providers surveyed stated they do not believe commercial payers are fair all or most of the time, with the majority (49 percent) stating they are fair only some of the time when reimbursing claims.

Interestingly, 39 percent of providers still use paper to submit claims to commercial payers, but less than one percent use paper for Medicare claims and only 11 percent still use paper for Medicaid claims.

The IVANS 2012 Healthcare Provider study also revealed that 65 percent of healthcare respondents said Medicare was the fastest payer, 26 percent said Medicaid and only nine percent said commercial payers were the fastest. These findings indicate that while certain steps have been taken to improve the claims process, more work needs to be done with integrating automation into the claims workflow so everyone can enjoy its benefits.

The survey was conducted electronically January 5-12, 2012, and the results represent responses from over 700 healthcare providers from across the United States.

Source: IVANS