The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) has launched Project SwipeIT, an industry-wide effort calling on health insurers, vendors, and healthcare providers to initiate processes to adopt standardized, machine-readable patient ID cards by Jan. 1, 2010.
Most patient ID cards currently in use have no machine-readable elements. Healthcare providers must typically photocopy the cards for their records. This process is prone to human error, since employees in a doctor’s office or hospital must re-enter demographic and insurance information into their computer systems. Many cards are inconsistently designed and feature photos, illustrations, and dark backgrounds that make legible photocopying difficult. Machine-readable cards, linked to providers’ computer systems via a card reader, would automatically enter patient information correctly and cost-effectively.
MGMA estimates that machine-readable patient ID cards could save physician offices and hospitals as much as $1 billion a year by eliminating unnecessary administrative efforts and denied claims. According to MGMA, a machine-readable card compliant with the mandates of the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) costs about 50 cents--just a fraction more than the nonstandardized, plastic or paper cards that most insurers now use. MGMA says that the savings that insurers will see from reduced provider inquiries, claims reprocessing, and labor will far exceed this expense.
Visit the project’s web site.
