MAGNA CARTA FOR MEDICAL BANKING

MEDICAL BANKING | Aligning Banks With Critical Healthcare Needs

Source: The Medical Banking Project, Legislative Committee

>> Banks Are Improving Cost, Quality and Access to Healthcare, Too!

Embedded within the fabric of a $2.5 trillion healthcare system is the banking and financial services community. This network of organizations process these healthcare dollars using the most efficient payment system in the world, settling billions of dollars every minute for millions of patients and healthcare groups who value and demand confidentiality, privacy, speed and efficiency.

This national resource, which could be deployed to solve numerous systemic inefficiencies throughout the healthcare claim and payment process, moves massive volumes of funds and data in between all the healthcare stakeholders - providers, payers, employers, consumers and others - both within America and around the world. Yet in our dialogue to move healthcare into a more electronic environment in America, banks and financial services firms are often sitting outside of the discussion. Why is that?

Many equate the banking contribution to healthcare with HSAs alone, yet the reality is that banks currently invest in healthcare IT so they can move mountains of paper out of the healthcare system.  This conversion to electronic processing allows important data to be available much more quickly to the healthcare providers and subsequently to consumers. This important function that banks perform today for the healthcare industry bears repeating: Our banking system does not only move money, but it also moves data between all the healthcare stakeholders.

>> Supporting Green Technology and Converting New Value To Charity Care

A missing ingredient in the national dialogue to improve our healthcare system is how banks can harness and enhance highly secure, existing technology to ramp healthcare onto the digital platform of the 21st Century. Leveraging proven and secure banking systems, we can dramatically reduce the costly paper chase in healthcare, saving at least $35 billion annually in waste1, and, those annual savings can be used to supplement the cost of treating the uninsured.2 In addition, by moving healthcare into a real time platform we can save billions of dollars in administrative inefficiency and help to make critical information available instantly.3

Use of this technology not only supports a powerful Green Technology platform for America but it delivers exceptional public value as well by giving providers cost savings to apply to uninsured families and the expansion of healthcare delivery.

>> Delivering healthcare records and healthcare information for the masses

Today, online banking is one of the most trusted and well used portals with over 55 million American households currently online. Americans use online banking with confidence everyday owing to the fact that banks use some of the most sophisticated identity and access management engines outside of the defense industry. Coupled with the rise of online banking is increased investment by employers in healthcare portals that help employees learn how to live healthier lives. Linking online banking with lifestyle portals offered by employers could create a cultural shift that is clearly necessary for helping individuals learn about healthier lifestyle practices.

This “Health-Wealth” portal of the future opens up enormous possibilities to fast forward eHealth for generations to come in America. Through secure online banking systems that we routinely use to access our money, online banking customers could access their personal healthcare records along with other online tools and information that foster better health.

The integration of banking and healthcare is not just about HSAs, although that is a key program; it is also about how to engage the consumer to live a healthier lifestyle. Banks and financial institutions have spent much time and money designing easy-to-use online systems and this base of knowledge can be used to support a major national drive to optimize community healthcare, a key goal of the Obama Administration.

>> How Is this new field of “Medical Banking” building out?

The Medical Banking Project has pioneered new thinking that links banking and healthcare infrastructure to dramatically impact cost, quality and access to healthcare. Supported by some 45 corporations, universities and government agencies (CMS, Veterans Healthcare Administration, Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control, others) the Project spearheads industry initiatives that demonstrate the potential of medical banking.  These include: 

• The Gold Seal Program for instilling public trust in medical banking programs. The emphasis of this program is HIPAA privacy and security practices, as well as other critical data protection regulations.

• The Specialized Payment Platform for moving massive volumes of paper out of the system. This platform promotes real time payments at point of service, implements key processing standards and enables digital workflows.

• The Health-Wealth Portal for aggregating financial and healthcare resources into the online banking platform.  The portal can offer single sign on advantages to the consumer as well as convenience for choosing and financing a person’s healthcare.
   

As President Obama noted in a major policy speech, fiscal success is predicated upon the health of a community. Healthier communities are more productive and dynamic, thus banks have an interest in supporting the healthcare of the communities they serve.  Along with serving their communities, banks offer the healthcare industry a large opportunity for cost savings and improved efficiencies, and therefore it makes perfect sense to align these two critical industry segments to improve American healthcare.

We would like to offer our assistance to Members of Congress and others to help further understand how the banking community can contribute to the formation of solutions that solve the pressing healthcare policy issues that are currently being faced by our nation.

Contact info:

John Casillas, Founding Director

The Medical Banking Project

Franklin, Tennessee

(615) 794-2009

www.mbproject.org

1 MBProject Research Report, 2001. The report calculates that the aggregate annual savings of implementing one model in medical banking (the specialized lockbox) is $35 billion. The data are based on the cost to process a payment electronically versus via paper. An earlier study was done in 1994 by the Bankers EDI Council that determined the savings to be $11 per remittance. This level of savings confirms the MBProject study.

2 MBProject asserts that operationalized savings among providers will supplement uncompensated/charity services. In 2005, PNC Bank commissioned an independent survey to study the effect of better administrative practices using banks. The target group was 135 national healthcare providers and healthcare plans (approximately 35 were plans). The respondents indicated they would save between $1 million and $10 million annually using a medical banking platform. 67% indicated they would use the savings for funding indigent and/or charity care.

3 Institute of Medicine, To Err Is Human, 1999. Adverse drug events that result in death of the patient could be mitigated using current electronic healthcare records.

At MBProject's 7th National Medical Banking Institute a call was made to take "MBP to the Hill" to share our message about improving healthcare using banking systems. Some 17 firms signed onto the effort which was then taken up by a new Legislative Workgroup at MBProject to develop the Magna Carta for Medical Banking statement, now being socialized through our "Point and Click Expedition."