N.J. Pilot Program Offers Web Portal for Tracking Coverage, Claims Status
On Thursday, America's Health Insurance Plans and the BlueCross BlueShield Association announced a pilot program in New Jersey that combines electronic information from the state's largest private insurers, the New York Times reports.
The program will allow medical professionals to log in to a single Web portal and instantly check a patient's coverage information and insurance claims status.
Insurers participating in the program are:
- Aetna;
- AmeriHealth New Jersey;
- Cigna;
- Horizon BlueCross BlueShield of New Jersey; and
- UnitedHealthcare.
Although the portal will provide information from all of the health plans, physicians will need to access subsections of the site in order to obtain individual patient data from a particular insurer. In addition, the health plans will not immediately provide the same quantity of information.
AHIP President Karen Ignagni said the New Jersey program demonstrates that insurers are continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and develop standards, regardless of the fate of national health care reform legislation (Abelson, New York Times, 2/10). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.