In today's changing healthcare delivery environment, Integrated Delivery Systems (IDS) and hospital-affiliated physician groups are increasingly trending to the forefront of the next generation of healthcare to enhance quality, access and cost management. Technology is one of the most significant key driver of physician group practice efficiency. Humana and Availity have invested in a variety of technology solutions designed to drive efficiencies to reduce administrative work that we can show through case studies to have a dramatic impact on a physician groups bottom line. This panel will provide proven, cost-savings methods and technogies.

Delivery networks are searching for ways to control administrative cost as they are managing multiple physician practices often operating on disparate systems with a wide variety of models and processes. This "delivery network" panel will demonstrate that implementation of specific tools and processes which have been proven to successfully reduce administrative costs. Two payer service organizations, Availity and athenahealth, will illustrate the specific steps that lead to cost-savings realization. For example, the use of multi-payer tools reduces the need for proprietary, single-payer efforts. Creating efficiencies in this area improves operating processes to streamline work flow and leverage technology. Providers of all sizes have an opportunity to experience this cost savings.

The panel discussion will offer a comparison of datapoints from provider systems, provider service organization systems and payer systems which will demonstrate the validity of these cost-saving results. Health care financiers be able to understand the facts that lead to the cost-saving realization which include; baseline measurements that track measured improvements in claims data quality, faster claim cycle times, improved collections, reduced bad debt and improved administrative effort. They will also hear about the barriers to reaching these results which include ambivalence to change and the importance of administrative skill sets and prioritizing technology upcrades.

In summary, steps to reduce administrative cost and hassle that will be discussed include;
1) leveraging multi-payer tools to maximize available information and implement payer edits earlier in the claim process,
2) creating technical connections to reduce manual effort and improve data quality,
3) leveraging data to improve claim processes,
4) training office clinical and administrative staff to increase performance.