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Health Plans Announce Benefits Administration Technology Alliance

Through the Council on Affordable Quality Healthcare, 12 health insurers have pledged to adopt technology that coordinates benefits administration.

Twelve health insurers have pledged to adopt technology developed through the industry alliance Council on Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) when it launches later this year.

The technology platform helps determine primary and secondary coverage for patients who are insured by more than one policy. The goal is to streamline which insurer is responsible for which benefits related to a particular patient to prevent confusion that CAQH says is responsible for $800 million in sunk cost per year to the industry.

"By building and investing in technology that simplifies the claims process, and deploying it in partnership with care providers, we are collectively committing to reducing unnecessary administrative costs and improving the patient experience," said David Wichmann, EVP and CFO of CAQH member UnitedHealth Group, president of UnitedHealth Group Operations and Technology and chair of the CAQH Board, in a statement.

Other member insurers include Aetna; AultCare; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan; Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina; BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee; CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield; Cigna; Health Net, Inc.; Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc.; Kaiser Permanente; and WellPoint, Inc.

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"This initiative is part of our ongoing commitment to reduce costs and make administrative processes work better across the healthcare system," said Robin Thomashauer, executive director of CAQH, in a statement. "We are working with the leadership of our member organizations to develop a solution that offers a more reliable, more transparent way to simplify the coordination of benefits process."

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio

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