Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y., and health insurer Independent Health Association will adopt an electronic health transaction network to verify patients' identities and process claims to help fight fraud, save money and increase safety, the Buffalo News reports.
The network will be managed by Health Transaction Network, which also will process patient transactions for Medicaid, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus, New York's public health insurance programs.
Program officials hope the network will initiate a broader effort for private health insurers to streamline insurance claims processing, the News reports.
Under the program, Independent Health will issue identification cards to more than 26,000 current Medicaid beneficiaries and expects to begin enrollment in the other two government safety net programs by November, according to Frank Sava, a spokesperson for the insurer.
The ID cards will have both a magnetic strip for routing payments and a microchip that will contain a biometric identification such as the person's signature and fingerprints, the News reports.
The information will be encoded when patients enroll and matched up when the patient comes for treatment. Health Transaction Network will install special payment card readers at the hospital by 2008 that can read both the chip and the strip.
The patient verification and claims processing system builds on relationships established between Western New York HealtheNet and HealtheLink, which are electronic systems for exchanging administrative and clinical information, according to the News.
Officials also are testing electronic prescriptions and want 500 physicians to adopt the technology in three years (Epstein, Buffalo News, 10/1).