Doctors sought for quick-pay system test

A New York insurer is recruiting 40 physicians to test if a swipe card improves claims turnaround times.

By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. Oct. 9, 2000.

Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New York is planning to recruit 40 doctors to test a product that promises to make getting paid faster and simpler for physicians.

Empire is among investors that have put a collective $42 million into Cranbury, N.J.-based onehealthbank.com. The company is guaranteeing that physicians associated with insurers who use its system will get paid in full 48 hours after a patient's visit. The 40-doctor test is scheduled to begin by January 2001.

If the firm's service works as advertised, it would mark a dramatic departure from today's claims processing environment in which doctors can spend months arguing with insurers about how much they should be paid.

Here's how onehealthbank.com's system would work: Patients would give office staff a health plan ID card with a magnetic stripe. A staff member would swipe it through a card reader connected to a computer and be connected to the insurer's information system. That staff member could determine the patient's insurance eligibility as well as the patient's and insurer's financial responsibilities.

If there's a dispute over how much each side should pay, the three parties could hold a conference call to resolve it. If the parties can't agree, payment can be postponed until the matter is settled, said Bruce Elder, vice president of marketing and business development for onehealthbank.com.

Doctors who sign up for the service would pay a fee of 3% to 6%. With the doctors' authorization, the fee would be debited monthly from their bank accounts, Elder said.

Although doctors would need a computer and Internet access, they wouldn't need a reader because they can input patients' health plan ID and credit card numbers on a computer, said Elder.

Onehealthbank.com said it had signed deals with some East Coast insurers, but declined to identify them other than Empire.