A large national bank and a healthcare information technology vendor long known for enabling healthcare transactions are teaming up in an alliance to jointly serve their clients.
The Bank of New York Mellon, Pittsburgh, and The SSI Group Inc., Mobile, Ala., announced the partnership late last week.
The agreement is yet another example of banks taking steps to play a larger role in healthcare.
In announcing the agreement, Mellon and SSI said healthcare clients would be able to integrate SSI's suite of Web-based electronic data interchange into Mellon's range of revenue cycle product and service offerings, through its Working Capital Solutions segment.
SSI provides services to providers and payers, it offers technologies for managing cash flow, claims processing, real-time eligibility, claims status, and contact, denial and document management.
Mellon will offer SSI's services in conjunction with its treasury services, such as lockbox services for patient and commercial insurance payments, conversion of paper transactions to electronic remittance advices, among other services.
The announcement is one of the biggest this year to affirm that banking services and EDI services are likely to become more closely related, said John Casillas, president of the Medical Banking Project, an organization seeking to foster growth in relationships between the banking and healthcare communities.
"This announcement confirms a continuing trend in the marketplace, where leading banks and health data management firms will create seamless high-efficiency tools that reduce the cost of health data transactions," Casillas said.
Such combinations are crucial to facilitate the personalization of healthcare, particularly as consumer-driven initiatives are embraced, he said.
"These types of infrastructure plays are what is required to support mass customization of healthcare, whether that be consumer-driven health plans or new consumer tools that help individuals with their healthcare spend," he said. "Financing healthcare will become increasingly personalized, and that is why linking the power of a strong bank and a large healthcare data management firm can fundamentally transform cost, quality and access to care."
Casillas also said he predicts there will be other "similar developments" by large players in this arena.