Feb. 7—An online tool facilitates electronic payments between payers and providers by offering a way for providers to enroll in electronic funds transfer (EFT) with multiple health plans, eliminating the need for providers to enroll in EFT separately for each health plan in which they participate.

The tool, released by the Council for Affordable and Quality Healthcare (CAQH), is free for providers. Participating payers support the operations of the service through a low annual participation fee, according to a release.

Under the Affordable Care Act, all commercial health plans must adopt EFT and electronic remittance advice (ERA) operating and standards rules by Jan.1, 2014, and certify that they have the ability to facilitate these transactions, should a provider request an electronic remittance. In addition, all payments under Medicare must be conducted by EFT beginning in January 2014. 

However, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, only 32 percent of healthcare claims were paid electronically in 2010, in part because cumbersome enrollment processes previously required providers to enroll separately with each payer.

For more information on EFT and ERA, read “Electronic Remissions: What’s the Holdup?” in this month’s issue of hfm magazine.

Publication Date: Thursday, February 07, 2013