Dive Brief:
Humana and Epic are partnering to speed patient appointment check-in and coverage verification for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, the companies said Tuesday.
The new features are included in the electronic health record vendor’s payer platform, which allows insurance details from Humana to be automatically shared with providers before patients arrive at appointments, according to a press release.
The collaboration is an early result of an initiative from the Trump administration that aims to boost health data sharing and reduce repetitive, paper-based processes in healthcare, the companies said.
Dive Insight:
The partnership will allow more than 800,000 Humana MA members who receive care at around 120 different health systems to check in at their doctor’s office without showing their insurance cards, according to the press release.
Front desk staff can use a digital card to check in patients, and coverage information will be available in advance of appointments — so workers won’t need to spend time manually entering insurance details. That should prevent mistakes and ensure correct billing, Humana and Epic said.
“From reducing time at the front desk by up to 50%, to ensuring their coverage is accurate and up-to-date, this makes insurance information one less thing patients need to worry about,” Alan Hutchison, vice president at Epic, said in a statement.
The collaboration builds on the CMS’ Health Tech Ecosystem, an initiative announced by the White House this summer that included partnerships with dozens of large healthcare and technology firms, the companies said.
The ecosystem focuses on encouraging adoption of a voluntary blueprint for health data sharing, as well as boosting the use of digital health tools, like chronic condition management products.
One goal of the initiative is to “kill the clipboard,” or facilitate seamless data exchange so patients don’t have to repeatedly write out their medical history or other information each time they visit a doctor.
The CMS said the ecosystem would “deliver results” in the first quarter next year. That’s a fairly quick turnaround for a plan without much detail, experts said this summer.
But improving data exchange — a long-term frustration in the healthcare system — is a worthy goal, and companies discussing their plans could be an indicator of the initiative’s progress, experts added.
