Byline: Price Colman Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
The management arm of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Colorado has allied with computer giant IBM to develop a computer system that connects hospitals, physicians, clinics and insurers.
A key reason for the partnership is to eliminate paperwork. Rocky Mountain Health Care Corp. executives contend that such efforts will increase the efficiency of health care provision, improve the quality of care and ultimately reduce costs.
``It will eventually allow us to provide more affordable health care to patients,'' said Stephen T. O'Dell, an executive of Rocky Mountain Health Care Corp., which also manages the Blues in New Mexico and Nevada.
The venture will use IBM's Health Data Network, essentially a centralized ``hub'' of computer hardware and services that will allow health care entities to share and coordinate information about patients and insurance benefits.
In the past, the three main segments of the industry - hospitals, doctors and insurers - have used computer systems that typically don't ``talk'' to each other.
Experts estimate that it costs $7 each time a piece of health care paperwork is handled. By digitizing that information and making it accessible to the three key segments of the health care sector, executives see big savings.
Rocky Mountain Health Care Corp. has committed to invest about $2.3 million for the first phase of the operation and about $4 million over four years.
The start-up phase, which should be in place by September, will include electronic claims submission, claims and eligibility status and referral processing.
Ultimately, the network will enable participants to receive lab reports electronically, access medical references such as pharmaceutical databases online, conduct electronic precertification for surgeries, exchange e-mail and obtain access to the Internet.
