System and method for coordination of benefits in a healthcare system

Abstract

A healthcare system coordinating benefits includes a provider computer configured to receive patient information for a patient and to communicate a payment request to a payer computer. The provider computer includes programmed instructions to identify a coordination of benefits claim, obtain certain data from a response received from the payer computer in response to requests from the provider computer, store the certain data from the response, and provide the stored certain data in a coordination benefits claim.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a healthcare system in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a screen display of an interface detailing claim status in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 are screen displays of an interface for secondary claim information in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting operations performed for a coordination of benefits feature in a healthcare eligibility and benefits data system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Exemplary embodiments will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the following description is intended to describe exemplary embodiments of the invention, and not to limit the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary healthcare eligibility and benefits data system 100. The system 100 includes a computer 102 and a database 104. The system 100 is coupled to a network 106 by which the system 100 can communicate with provider systems 108 and 110. In some embodiments, system 100 communicates with provider systems 108 or 110 via non-Internet network connections. The system 100 communicates with a payer system 112 directly or via a network (not shown), which can be a virtual private network (VPN), a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP), a high speed line, an Internet-based network, or a dedicated network.

Providers 108 and 110 submit and receive real-time transactions with system 100. For example, providers 108 and 110 submit claims to the system 100 and download ERA from system 100. The system 100 sends claims and real-time requests to the payer system 112, and the system 100 receives claims, real-time responses, and electronic remittance advice (ERA) from the payer system 112. The computer 102 has software including an operation system that provides various system-level operations and provides an environment for executing application software. In this regard, computer 102 is loaded with a software application that provides information for use in communications with provider systems and payer systems.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that all health insurance payers in the United States comply with the electronic data interchange (EDI) standards for health care as establish by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). EDI standard 835 is the HIPAA-defined standard for electronic transmission of EOB information. The format of an electronic EOB is referred to as an electronic remittance advice (ERA). In some situations, 835 data accompanies an Electronic Funds Transfer from the payer. The payer is not required to mail a check and a paper EOB statement by coupling related but separate transactions. Electronic transactions save money for the payer in check processing and mailing fees. Providers also benefit from the efficiencies and security of electronic EOBs. Providers can also upload 835 data and use it to reconcile outstanding patient account balances. In such a situation, the provider does not have to manually post payments from a paper EOB. The computer 102 can receive 835 files for many providers in a batch. An 835 file from a single payer may include many individual 835 files. The computer 102 parses payer files available to providers. These provider files can be viewed on a web browser, viewed as a file (e.g., a pdf file, or downloaded as a coded file that can be uploaded to an accounting system.)

FIG. 2 illustrates a screen display of an interface detailing claim status for a previous claim paid by a payer. Icon 210 engages a process by which coordination of benefits (COB) claims are submitted. COB refers to the process of billing multiple payers for one patient. Generally, most claims received by a payer are primary claims; fewer claims are secondary or greater to the previous claim.

HIPAA guidelines indicate that COB claims should be processed by provider or payers exchanging 835 data, which, as discussed above is the EDI standard for electronic transmission of EOB information, also referred to as an electronic remittance advice (ERA). The exemplary embodiments described herein allow providers that do not receive 835 data or do not have a medical billing software product to send COB claims to payers. The COB claim submission can be made without the benefit of pre-filling from a prior transaction, such as an 837 or 835 transaction. If previous 837 or 835 information is available, most of the required fields can be extracted and used in the COB claim.

FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 illustrate screen displays of an interface for secondary claim information. The interface permits the creation of COB claims that are compliant with the HIPAA 837 standard. The COB payer can use the data generated using this interface to adjudicate the COB claim electronically. As suggested above, fields in the interface may be pre-filled if there exists previous 837 or 835 information corresponding to the claim. However, previous 837 or 835 information is not required. In at least one exemplary embodiment, colors are used to show data status. For example, yellow may be used to show data that is pre-filled from previous 837 or 835 information and, therefore, not editable. Green may be used to show data that is pre-filled but editable. Blue can be used to show blank fields required for completion by the user.

Section 410 of the interface includes an adjustment code translator at a claim level and section 420 of the interface includes an adjustment code translator at a service line level. These translators allow the user to select a typical adjustment category and translate the category to HIPAA- and payer-approved group and reason codes.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting operations performed for a coordination of benefits feature in a healthcare eligibility and benefits data system. Additional, fewer, and different operations may be performed depending on the particular implementation. In an operation 610, a coordination of benefits (COB) claim is identified. As discussed above, a COB claim is one in which multiple payers are available for payment of a claim. For instance, a husband and a wife may both have medical insurance and one insurance pays as a secondary insurance to the first.

In an operation 620, a determination is made whether there is 837 or 835 data associated with the claim that is available. If so, an operation 630 is performed where the 837 or 835 data is utilized in the COB claim submission. Such 837 or 835 data can pre-populate fields needed for the COB claim. In an operation 640, information necessary for the COB claim is entered in an interface, such as the interface described with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, and 5. In an operation 650, the COB claim is submitted to the payers.

Conventionally, health care providers must have medical billing software that supports the creation of COB claims. Also, many current systems lack the 835 data or have incompatible systems. Such providers then must send a paper COB which can cost $10 per claim. In contrast, an electronic COB claim may be only $1 per claim. The systems and methods described herein allow providers to process COB claims even though they do not receive 835 data and even though they may not have a medical billing software product to send COB claims to payers.

It should be appreciated, of course, that the details associated with the product described herein merely represent one possible implementation. Exemplary embodiments are described herein with reference to drawings. These drawings illustrate certain details of specific embodiments that implement the systems and methods and programs of the exemplary embodiments. However, describing the exemplary embodiments with drawings should not be construed as imposing on the invention any limitations that may be present in the drawings. The present invention contemplates methods, systems and program products on any machine-readable media for accomplishing it operations. The exemplary embodiments may be implemented using an existing computer processor, or by a special purpose computer processor incorporated for this or another purpose or by a hardwired system.

Embodiments may include program products comprising machine-readable media for carrying or having machine-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such machine-readable media can be any available media which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer or other machine with a processor. By way of example, such machine-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EPROM, EPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or stored desired program code in the form of machine-executable instructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer or other machine with a processor. When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired or wireless) to a machine, the machine properly views the connection as a machine-readable medium. Thus, any such a connection is properly termed machine-readable medium. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of machine-readable media. Machine-executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing machines to perform a certain function or group of functions.

Embodiments are described in the general context of method operations which may be implemented in one embodiment by a program product including machine-executable instructions, such as program code, for example in the form of program modules executed by machines in networked environments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Machine-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of program code for executing steps of the methods described herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represent examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such operations.

Embodiments may be practiced in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers having processors. Logical connections may include a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) that are presented here by way of example and not limitation. Such networking environments are commonplace in office-wide or enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet and may use a wide variety of different communication protocols. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such network computing environments will typically encompass many types of computer system configurations, including personal computers, hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by local and remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wireless links or by a combination of hardwired and wireless links) through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

It should be noted that although the flow charts provided herein show a specific order of method operations, it is understood that the order of these operations may differ from what is depicted. Also two or more operations may be performed concurrently or with partial concurrence. Such variation will depend on the software and hardware systems chosen and on designer choice. Likewise, software and web implementations of the exemplary embodiment could be accomplished with standard programming techniques with rule based logic and logic to accomplish the various database searching steps, correlation steps, comparison steps and decision steps. It should also be noted that the word “component” as used herein and in the claims is intended to encompass implementations using one or more lines of software code, and/or hardware implementations, and/or equipment for receiving manual inputs.

The foregoing description of exemplary embodiments have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the precise form disclosed, and modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the present invention. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the present invention and its practical application to enable one skilled in the art to utilize the present invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

Claims

1. A healthcare system coordinating benefits, the system comprising: a provider computer configured to receive patient information for a patient and to communicate a payment request to a payer computer, wherein the provider computer includes programmed instructions to: identify a coordination of benefits claim;obtain certain data from a response received from the payer computer in response to requests from the provider computer;store the certain data from the response; andprovide the stored certain data in a coordination benefits claim.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the stored certain data comprises a patient member number and a patient date of birth.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the response includes HIPAA 837 data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the response includes HIPAA 835 data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the provider computer includes an interface having a coordination of benefits selection.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the programmed instructions further comprise instructions to translate adjustment codes.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the programmed instructions to provide the stored certain data in a coordination benefits claim comprise pre-filling the coordination of benefits claim with prior transaction data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the prior transaction data includes electronic remittance advice data.

9. A method of managing coordination benefits data, the method comprising: identifying a coordination of benefits opportunity;determining whether data is available to pre-fill a coordination of benefits claim;pre-filling the coordination of benefits claim if data is available; andcommunicating the coordination of benefits claims to multiple payers.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising adjusting costs based on multiple payers associated with the coordination of benefits claim.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving additional data to complete the coordination of benefits claim.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein data to pre-fill the coordination of benefits claim comprises HIPAA 837 data.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein identifying a coordination of benefits opportunity comprises receiving a signal indicating a patient having multiple payers.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein communicating the coordination of benefits claims to multiple payers comprises submitting the coordination of benefits claims to a primary payer and a secondary payer.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein communicating the coordination of benefits claims to multiple payers comprises communicating the coordination of benefits claims over the Internet.

16. A computer program product comprising: programmed instructions to identify a coordination of benefits opportunity;programmed instructions to determine whether data is available to pre-fill a coordination of benefits claim;programmed instructions to pre-fill the coordination of benefits claim if data is available; andprogrammed instructions to communicate the coordination of benefits claims to multiple payers.

17. The product of claim 16, wherein the data to pre-fill the coordination of benefits claim comprises a patient member number and a patient date of birth.

18. The product of claim 16, further comprising providing an interface to translate adjustment codes for multiple payers.

19. The product of claim 16, wherein the data to pre-fill the coordination of benefits claim comprises electronic remittance advice data.

20. The product of claim 16, wherein the data to pre-fill the coordination of benefits claim comprises includes HIPAA 837 data.