HealthEdge survey shows payers planning to support new healthcare models
A recent market survey of payers by healthcare software provider HealthEdge shows that the majority of payers are planning to support new payment and healthcare models in the next three years.
More than 50 percent of the 106 payer respondents said their organizations are prepared to support payment reforms including accountable care organizations (54.4 percent) and pay-for-performance (50.5 percent), as well as broader and undefined "other healthcare reform initiatives" (64.1 percent) and "other models involving new payment approaches" (51.5 percent).
"We were impressed by the number of payer organizations that are planning to support one or more of the new healthcare business models within the next three years," said HealthEdge CEO Rob Gillette in an announcement detailing the survey results. "The one-size-fits-all healthcare offerings of yesterday are being rapidly replaced by options that support new levels of individualization, personalization and customization, and new levels of risk-sharing between payers, providers and members."
Further, the survey indicated that while payers intend to support the adoption of ACOs in the next three years, only 37.1 percent of the surveyed companies are currently capable of leveraging their technology platforms to properly support them. This compares with more than half of the companies that have technology in place to support pay-for-performance programs.
[See also:ACOs adopting different payment approaches under PPACA, says report; P4P maintains quality of care, study finds.]
With the need to upgrade their healthcare IT systems in order to meet the growing demand for new care and payment models, insurance executives noted that their biggest obstacles for their IT programs are "issues related to keeping current with new standards like ICD-10 and HIPAA 5010", cited by 31.4 percent, followed by '"high rates of manual processing/need to reduce administrative costs" (28.7 percent).
With less than two years before ICD-10 must be fully implemented, only 22 percent of respondents said their organizations were "completely prepared," while 36 percent listed their organizations as "somewhat prepared." And, despite all the publicity and the push to get organization working on ICD-10 early, 37 percent answered that they were only "starting to prepare" for the new standard.
"Our survey…revealed that many organizations are behind schedule, and many payer executives are struggling to address business needs while simultaneously trying to avoid pouring more money into the remediation of their outdated technology infrastructure," noted Ray Desrochers, HealthEdge executive vice president of sales and marketing in a press release. "It is critical that payers make evaluating and remediating their IT systems a priority in 2012, so that they are ready to both meet the 2013 ICD-10 deadline and the other rapidly evolving needs of the new healthcare marketplace."
