Eight Ohio insurance companies plan to simplify billing for doctors, consumers

For any patient who has spent hours on the phone with a hospital or doctor's office to discuss insurance coverage Help is coming.

Eight of the largest healthcare companies in Ohio, insurance, and provide coverage to 91 percent of state residents, said Monday it has created a Web site that provides physicians a place to find benefit in patients information. The program, say, reduce paperwork between physician offices and health plans and, eventually, reduce billing errors.

"This is similar to ATM technology that banks took," said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, with emphasis on ease of use new technology. "It's a step that ultimately transform our health system.

While doctors will benefit from reduced billing complaints, thereby saving time, patients will benefit from seeing an increase in the amount of time your doctor can spend with them, and a decrease in their headaches own billing , according to Ignagni.

The website will enable physicians to the offices of its kind in the health plan of a patient and member identification number. You can then review treatments and procedures are covered by insurance and claim status check, and in some cases complaints.

America's Health Insurance Plan proposes to launch coordinated site next month in Ohio and New Jersey, but hopes to eventually deploy nationwide. In Ohio, the site will be available for the estimated 30,000 doctors first, before being offered to hospitals.

Mark Jarvis, senior director of the economics of practice in the Ohio State Medical Association, said the new system will provide "transparency and clarity and physician practice staff will have more time with patients.

That's because individual doctors spend an average of 3. 5 hours a week calling insurance companies and control of multiple Web sites to track billing claims and coverage. Staff physicians spend 58 hours a week on average working with insurance companies, Jarvis said.

In addition, consumers can consult their physicians about the costs before a procedure and therefore should not be surprised by a bill. The website also should reduce the number of times an insurance company denies coverage because of the "double billing a patient," which happens to return to the office of a doctor, a claim for payment has not arrived said Jarvis.

The streamlining of procedures and allow doctors to spend more time caring for patients and less time dealing with invoices has been a main point of the national debate on health reform. President Barack Obama spoke to a group of physicians in the Rose Garden on Monday, speaking of administrative simplification.

The American Medical Association began fighting medical coding and insurance billing systems costly for several years, bringing a report card that says "billions of dollars in administrative waste would be eliminated each year" if insurance companies will send timely, targeted and specific responses to individual complaints.

Dr. J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, said insurance companies mislead patients and doctors on purpose.

"Because at the end of the day, the benefits of an insurance company based on the medical care they do not pay," he said.

Ohio Network of insurers said they also saw the simplified billing as a way to reduce costs and during a call the evening news, a company called its participation "our efforts to reform the health system in America."

Kelly McGivern, president and CEO of the Association of Ohio Health Plans, said insurers pressured the state to be a pilot state. The Ohio insurance companies process more than 38 million claims in annual revenue, he said.

"The goal is to provide greater transparency in the lead for doctors offices can help consumers with common questions."

Apostle Paul, vice president of business development at Medical Mutual of Ohio, which has 1. 6 million members statewide, said the system will likely cause a change in how doctors and patients talk about treatment. He starts talking about costs.

"You'll see many more conversations in the offices of doctors," said the Apostle. "This is where health care is in charge."