Johannesburg, 04 Apr 2002
HealthBridge, leading e-commerce enabler in the South African healthcare sector in providing real-time Internet commerce, has slashed payment times - traditionally between 30 to 120 days - to only 14 days.
This dramatic reduction to a problem which has plagued the medical industry for years, as well as additional benefits such as minimising error and fraud while improving process efficiencies, has seen a marked increase in the number of general practitioners and hospitals turning towards HealthBridge`s innovative solutions.
HealthBridge, launched two years ago, is a three-way partnership between Dimension Data and health industry leaders Medscheme and Discovery Health. Its key role is to target information inefficiencies, improve cash flow and reduce administrative costs for healthcare providers and medical aids.
Paulo dos Santos, CIO at HealthBridge, says HealthBridge healthcare providers currently include over 2 000 general practitioners across the country. General Practitioners using HealthBridge can submit claims to Discovery Health, Medscheme, Sovereign Health, Medihelp, Metropolitan Health Group and Old Mutual Healthcare, which collectively ensure the lives of 5 million people, almost 80% of all insured lives in SA.
HealthBridge also recently announced that it has introduced a suite of hospital products, allowing real-time electronic interactions between Afrox Healthcare and Discovery Health, that will reduce costs and increase efficiency in the industry. In parallel with the Discovery Health and Afrox Healthcare implementation, HealthBridge is currently in the testing phase with Medscheme and Medi-Clinic.
"The medical industry is the second most information-intensive industry after the financial industry and is fraught with complexities. Our challenge was to introduce a concept using Internet technology to provide the most cost-effective switching technology between healthcare providers and the medical aids," says Dos Santos.
"Following careful evaluation of solutions available on the market both in SA and abroad, we finally selected to partner with Dimension Data."
The end result is a system providing secure, scalable and flexible functionality, which Dos Santos says is a world first in the medical industry.
For example, when a patient arrives at a general practitioner, the receptionist keys in the relevant medical aid number and within seconds the patient`s status is validated. After treatment, the claim is submitted and within seconds again a response is returned and the GP is advised how much he or she will be paid by the medical aid and how much is due by the patient. Payment is effected within 14 days as opposed to the traditional 30 to 120 days.
He adds that as the system is fully Internet-based, all a provider needs is a PC and modem to dial up to the HealthBridge infrastructure.
Sean Riley, business development manager: Integration Services at Dimension Data, says development of the initiative was achieved in a joint operation in which skills, competencies and technology were delivered to create the value-added system.
"We provided the base software platform that was adapted to suit the healthcare market. Speed was a critical factor in an environment where millions of transactions a month have to be switched in a secure, scalable and flexible manner."
He says the system had to be flexible as in time HealthBridge will offer similar added value efficiencies to other service providers in the healthcare sector.
"HealthBridge demanded that we provide an intelligent network, have an in-depth understanding of the solution that was required and how to maintain and extend it. I believe we have achieved this in our partnership effort," says Riley.
Dos Santos adds that HealthBridge is playing a critical role in reducing the high costs associated with the healthcare industry and adding value to both providers and medical aids.
"The lack of information has been an Achilles` heel in the medical sector, but we have been successful in bridging that gap and have seen a rapid take-on, particularly among dispensing doctors. By reducing the paper trail and minimising human intervention, we have been able to ensure that claims are processed rapidly and in a controlled fashion."
He says the multimillion-rand investment made into the HealthBridge operation is expected to provide a return on investment within the next few months.
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