PHILADELPHIA & BOSTON – Independence Blue Cross (IBC) and NaviNet announced today that their shared strategy to ensure providers are well-positioned to meet federal mandates has resulted in a joint upgrade offering for physician practices to transition to HIPAA 5010 compliance using NaviNet PM (Practice Management). In addition to making providers HIPAA 5010-compliant, the NaviNet PM solution gives healthcare professionals one central place to access the key administrative, financial, and clinical workflow information they need to be more efficient and deliver a better patient experience. Nationwide, IBC and its affiliates provide coverage to nearly 3.1 million people. NaviNet is America’s largest healthcare network, serving more than 120 million members. The two companies report that physician practice adoption of this upgrade is significantly exceeding expectations.
“Our joint program also sets them up to take advantage of EHR technology like NaviNet EMR (electronic medical records), which, among many other benefits, allows them to access the “meaningful use”
“The healthcare industry is undergoing a monumental transformation,” said Joan Jennerjahn, Vice President of IBC’s Provider Network Operations and recipient of this year’s national Healthcare 11’s IT award. “In addition to the new federal healthcare reform law, there are government mandates that require significant time and investment by healthcare providers, health plans, and vendors in order to be compliant. We recognized the value of partnering with NaviNet to leverage the new capabilities offered by NaviNet PM, an upgrade solution that gives smaller physician practices a unique opportunity to update their office systems. Physician practices are winning on two fronts. First, they achieve compliance with the government mandates without making a significant investment in technology upgrades, and second, they streamline their office workflow.”
IBC’s NaviNet provider portal currently enables physicians to effectively and seamlessly care for IBC members by validating member eligibility, requesting preauthorization for services, or checking the status of submitted claims. Also available to IBC’s network physicians today via NaviNet are the health plan’s unique Clinical Care Alerts and Clinical Care Reports — two tools that assist physicians in identifying any potential gaps in patient care with the goal to improve quality and facilitate better care coordination.
The IBC-NaviNet upgrade now offers a multi-payer solution that provides physicians with the ability to collect the reimbursements and payments they are owed, improves claims resolution capabilities and billing/collections effectiveness, and prepares them for HIPAA 5010 compliance. The rapid adoption thus far reflects physician practices’ need for a unified patient information management (UPIM) system that integrates seamlessly with other providers, health plans, and healthcare service providers.
The linked integration to NaviNet PM is a patient-centric strategy that enables healthcare professionals to deliver better patient satisfaction, enhance claims collections, and lower the costs of high-quality care delivery. This user-friendly solution, accessible via a SaaS-based portal, enables physician practices to leverage their existing business processes, upgrades their current capabilities, and gives them greater functionality so that they have all the patient information they require. Using a modular step-by-step implementation process, the software can be rapidly and easily upgraded with little interruption to the office or physician’s workflow. The upgrade to NaviNet PM enables physicians to focus on patient care, not IT.
“My practice is an early adopter of the NaviNet PM solution. We process about 60 percent of our office’s claims through IBC. The NaviNet PM solution enables us to have better claims resolution, makes us more efficient, and positions us well for HIPAA 5010 compliance,” said Dr. Savita Singh, M.D., PC, a rheumatologist from Philadelphia.
“Partnering with Independence Blue Cross to jointly offer IBC’s network providers an upgrade to NaviNet PM increases healthcare professionals’ ability to streamline their workflow and gives them a HIPAA 5010-compliant practice management system,” said Brad Waugh, President and Chief Executive Officer, NaviNet. “Our joint program also sets them up to take advantage of EHR technology like NaviNet EMR (electronic medical records), which, among many other benefits, allows them to access the “meaningful use” money available from the federal government and sets them up on the path to support integrated delivery of care models by incorporating their patient-centered medical home and accountable care initiatives.”
About Independence Blue Cross
Independence Blue Cross is a leading health insurer in southeastern Pennsylvania. Nationwide, Independence Blue Cross and its affiliates provide coverage to nearly 3.1 million people. For 73 years, Independence Blue Cross has offered high-quality health care coverage tailored to meet the changing needs of members, employers, and health care professionals. Independence Blue Cross’s HMO and PPO health care plans have consistently received the highest ratings from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Independence Blue Cross is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. More information about Independence Blue Cross is available at www.ibx.com.
About NaviNet
NaviNet, America’s largest real-time healthcare communications network, securely links leading health plans, industry partners and the government to hundreds of thousands of physicians, clinicians and other healthcare professionals. More than 70 percent of the nation’s physicians are enrolled in the NaviNet Network, which touches 121 million covered lives. NaviNet’s solutions and services for unified patient information management (UPIM) address the full lifecycle of healthcare data management by providing single-source access to patient-centric administrative, financial and clinical information to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and improve quality of care. The NaviNet solution suite includes NaviNet Insurer Connect, NaviNet PM, NaviNet EMR, NaviNet Mobile Connect and NaviNet Medicare Connect. For more information, or to sign up for NaviNet, please visit www.NaviNet.net or call 617-715-6000 or 800-805-7569. Connect with us on our blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
