UC San Diego Well being Spotlights SMART Well being Insurance coverage Playing cards

Highlights:

• First demonstration of recent QR code customary for medical health insurance playing cards.
• New mannequin will enable suppliers to scan QR code, confirm its authenticity and ingest the information into their techniques mechanically.
• Collaborating companions embrace UC San Diego Well being, UC Irvine Well being, UCLA Well being, UCSF Well being, UC Davis Well being, UCR Well being, Evernorth Well being Companies, Healthcare Monetary Administration Affiliation, The Commons Undertaking, VCI Coalition and CARIN Alliance.

Newswise — Throughout a digital well being symposium this week, Christopher Longhurst, MD, with UC San Diego Well being, pulled up a QR code from his telephone’s digital pockets, scanned it at a check-in kiosk and immediately displayed how his medical insurance coverage data was retrieved and verified in actual time, together with copay quantities.

The UC San Diego Well being digital well being symposium was the primary demonstration of the SMART well being QR codes for medical health insurance playing cards initiative — a brand new mannequin for digitally standardizing and modernizing medical health insurance playing cards, streamlining affected person check-ins and decreasing billing errors. UC San Diego Well being is the primary well being system within the nation to pilot this revolutionary new method.

“There are greater than 1,000 medical health insurance firms in the USA, every with their very own insurance coverage card format,” mentioned Longhurst, chief medical officer and chief digital officer at UC San Diego Well being. “It takes weeks to coach new workers members to decipher all these totally different card codecs, and there are sometimes typos, which might result in rejected insurance coverage claims. Having a standard QR code format to scan will streamline the method, cut back errors and simplify insurance coverage documentation for our sufferers and workers.”

Though many well being plans have not too long ago launched their very own digital member identification playing cards, there has not been a standard customary that allowed suppliers to simply scan or ingest that data — till now.

The brand new SMART Well being Insurance coverage Card relies on the SMART Health Card QR code customary that was adopted for verifiable vaccination data throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by many of the U.S. well being care and expertise ecosystems, together with: most U.S. states, nationwide pharmacy chains, well being suppliers and insurers and cellular and expertise platforms.

The SMART Well being Insurance coverage Card initiative was launched by The Commons Undertaking, in collaboration with the CARIN Alliance and the VCI coalition of private and non-private accomplice organizations that developed the SMART Well being Card customary.

The brand new SMART Well being Insurance coverage Card initiative garnered help from the Healthcare Monetary Administration Affiliation (HFMA) in April, a nonpartisan skilled follow group that represents 100,000 well being care monetary administration professionals nationwide.

“We urge our well being care system colleagues, payer companions and digital well being document follow administration system distributors to actively take part within the SMART Well being Insurance coverage Playing cards initiative and embrace the SMART Well being Card customary for medical health insurance playing cards,” mentioned Richard L. Gundling, senior vice chairman, skilled follow at HFMA. “We consider that adopting this customary will improve the effectivity and effectiveness of well being care providers, and thereby profit sufferers and suppliers alike.”

The UC San Diego Well being symposium, the place the demonstration passed off, is occurring on the Qualcomm Institute and is honoring Irwin and Joan Jacobs for his or her beneficiant help of $22 million in items to develop UC San Diego Well being’s Middle for Well being Innovation.

Distinguished thought leaders from academia and business are sharing concepts and key initiatives about improvements in well being care by AI and machine studying, cellular well being information pushed service fashions and moral and safe practices in digital well being, together with the launch of the SMART Well being Insurance coverage Card.

“UC San Diego Well being is located as a key resolution maker in well being care supply, and SMART Well being Insurance coverage Playing cards are an amazing alternative for us to showcase our innovation skillset, mindset and management for bettering the well being care ecosystem,” mentioned Joshua Glandorf, chief data officer for UC San Diego Well being. “There’s a sturdy alignment with these new SMART insurance coverage playing cards and the way we’re aiming to advance well being care within the digital area as a complete.”

“That is an thrilling step ahead in our work to make well being care less complicated for these we serve,” mentioned Glen Stettin, MD, chief innovation officer for Evernorth Well being Companies. “SMART insurance coverage playing cards have the potential to assist sufferers get quicker entry to wanted care, and assist docs get reimbursed extra effectively. Any group enthusiastic about eradicating friction in well being care ought to think about them.”

Following in the present day’s demonstration, UC San Diego Well being, UC Irvine Well being, UCLA Well being, UCSF Well being, UCR Well being and UC Davis Well being will conduct additional pilots of the mannequin.

HFMA can be forming a working group of enormous well being techniques nationwide to collaborate with their payer and digital well being document vendor companions to pilot the mannequin in coming months. After the pilots, the contributors will assess the outcomes and try for the widespread implementation of the usual and the mannequin throughout the upcoming profit yr beginning in January 2024.

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