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Why is EDI becoming more important in Healthcare?
In the past three years, the revenue challenges in healthcare have become more acute. Then the pandemic struck, stress was getting higher on healthcare worldwide. They must look internally to see where they can cut to increase profit to stay afloat. Many organizations tend to look at personal costs first and start firing employees, however is this the way to go for a healthy future..?
Why is EDI becoming more important in Healthcare?
In the past three years, the revenue challenges in healthcare have become more acute. Then the pandemic struck, stress was getting higher on healthcare worldwide and all plans to increase the financial resources needed to be tossed away.
Even with relief from the governments, many organizations are struggling to control costs and maintain high quality patient care and satisfaction while waiting for procedure volume to return to pre-pandemic levels.
While the pandemic still isn’t over, we are starting to see some light on the horizon. More and more people are getting the vaccine and the immense pressure on healthcare employees is slowly declining. Even with the declining pressure a lot of healthcare organizations find it difficult to get out of the financial slum they were thrown into. They must look internally to see where they can cut to increase profit to stay afloat. Many organizations tend to look at personal costs first and start firing employees, however is this the way to go for a healthy future..?
EDI isn't implemented enough yet
To be sure, EDI has been used in healthcare for decades, but it has been the neglected kid for way too long. Legacy systems are still good, manual input is cheaper, we don’t have the time to renew everything, new systems and/or software solutions are too expensive to purchase. These are the most know causes we hear when it comes down to implementing EDI-solutions.
Although for a lot of organizations these could legitimate reasons not to implement EDI it makes more sense to do the opposite!
Healthcare EDI and AVG & HIPAA compliance
One of the reason to implement EDI is to be compliant with the new privacy laws mandated by the AVG & HIPAA. Not even talking about the clear benefits from EDI in the work processes, EDI also increases the security on personal information. Sending out medicine orders, purchase orders, invoices via EDI will make sure the date is being send more secure and encrypted while also limiting the risks of leaking an email or losing a data carrier like an USB stick. No patient alive would like his or hers wellbeing or medicine usage to be out there for everyone to read.
EDI and data integration benefits for the Healthcare industry
Next to the better security when it comes to keeping private information private, EDI and related integration disciplines can positively impact the financial wellbeing of healthcare organizations in the following ways:
Standardization:
• Everything in 1 language, eliminating confusion which format an organization is using.
• All recipients receive messages in a clear and consistent format their ERP system can understand
• By working with 1 standard message format all complexity disappears.
Efficiency:
• Consistency leads to efficiency; efficient processes saves time and money
• Automatic data transmission of electronic messages is more efficient because humans are not involved
• Automatic data transmission allows those who need the data to receive and act on it sooner
Accuracy:
• Human errors — which is inevitable— leads to expensive mistakes
• Less control is needed on the data provided by the automated process
Cost savings:
• Efficiency and greater accuracy yield greater cost savings for healthcare organizations
• EDI and MFT eliminates the time and effort required to support paper-based processes
Improved productivity:
• EDI and related data integration tools can lower costs through higher productivity
• EDI transactions reduce time wasted entering data by hand and resolving incorrectly entered information
• Healthcare EDI removes uncertainty and the need to confirm the recipient got the information they need
ECS can assist!
Our platform X4Connect is the solution to help healthcare organizations to implement EDI in a fast, but more importantly secure, way! On our platform we have all the tools necessary to setup connections fast and integrate these into your back-end. Currently we already have 176 connections in healthcare including a lot of hospital pharmacies. X4Connect is also completely scalable with your organization, so you can begin small and it will grow with your needs as time passes by.
Do you want to know how you can reap all the benefits and achieve a great cost savings? Contact us today by our contactform or on +31 229-574331.
