Emdeon Convenes Industry Forum to Monitor Business Efficiency in ...(/p Healthcare is a human concer...),Health

"Healthcare is a human concern that touches all of us," Lazenby explained. "Every dollar spent on unnecessary administration is a dollar that cannot be spent on preventive care or covering an uninsured family. Think what we could do with $30 billion every year."

Reframing the Policy Conversation: Leveraging Efficient Business

The national conversation on the role of information in healthcare reform has been dominated by electronic medical records and a promise of clinical savings. The business side of healthcare offers significant potential for savings that are frequently overlooked. The Index provides a way to measure that potential.

"Too often it is assumed that billing and payment-related transactions have been 'fixed' and are already fully automated, but that is not the case," said Miriam Paramore, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Emdeon. "In fact, there are still billions of dollars in annual savings that could be realized simply by conducting the business of healthcare electronically."

Since the 1980s, the healthcare industry has struggled to eliminate paper processing and move towards automation and electronic commerce. Twelve years after enacting the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the savings promised from administrative simplification have not been fully realized.

Few outside of healthcare are aware, however, of the lack of progress and the savings that can be realized if even the most basic transactions are automated.

The vision for the Index is to raise awareness of the potential savings and facilitate collaboration and problem-solving among the public and private sectors.

"Addressing this issue can provide immediate relief -- within existing policy -- for both healthcare providers and payers," said Paramore. "Regulations are already in place through HIPAA to address electronic
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