WASHINGTON – The Healthcare Administrative Simplification Coalition launched a Web site Thursday aimed at helping providers cut costs through simplifying healthcare administration processes.
The coalition, called HASC, is a group of payers, government agencies, providers and employers committed to raising awareness on how eliminating unnecessary administrative complexity can boost the bottom line.
The American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Health Information Management Association and the Medical Group Management Association founded the coalition and announced its formation in March 2006.
The new Web site features cost cutting methods that include reducing redundancy in physician credentialing and standardizing processes for patient benefit coverage. “While the opportunities for simplification are enormous, HASC has chosen to focus on a few high-value approaches that can have great impact in the short term” said Linda Kloss, CEO of AHIMA.
According to William F. Jessee, MD, president and CEO of MGMA the coalition developed the site as a home base and source of support for the range of efforts already underway nationwide on reducing administrative complexity. “One of our primary goals as a coalition is to educate various constituencies – like employers – on the cost of administrative complexity, demonstrating that streamlining our current system is not only possible, but benefits everyone, especially patients,” Jessee said.
“We want to bring more value to the healthcare system by finding ways to work better, smarter and faster when dealing with administrative tasks,” said Douglas E. Henley, MD, executive vice president of the AAFP. “HASC provides a focused forum in which ideas can be shared, industry successes highlighted, resolutions to administrative complexities discussed and collective advocacy activities coordinated.”
The site also includes information on the coalition’s advocacy efforts, instructions on how providers and others can get involved, summaries of reform efforts and a speaker’s toolkit.
The coalition launches its Web site in the midst of increasing discussion and heated debates on how America’s runaway healthcare expenses can be controlled and by whom.
Presidential hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is among a large contingency promoting universal healthcare. At a recent forum, he said that a single payer healthcare system could provide enormous savings. “Currently Medicare costs about two to three percent to handle the paperwork,” Kucinich said. “When you look at the for-profit insurance companies, the cost of paperwork is about fifteen to thirty percent.” He backs his vision with a House bill that would create a single-payer system.
The Administration is urging progress toward “value-driven healthcare” that urges all healthcare providers to one day use electronic health records for reducing errors and administrative costs.
According to Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber supports bipartisan legislation encouraging widespread adoption of healthcare information technology to cut administrative costs. The Chamber and a host of Republican presidential contenders claim reforming the current employer-based system is the answer.