HHS' new rules on electronic payments could benefit doctors, hospitals

NPR reports on how efforts to set uniform standards for electronic claims for health care services could pay off.

NPR's SHOTS blog: Feds: Standardizing Electronic Health Payments Could Save $4.5 Billion
The proposed rule sets uniform standards for how health insurance companies are to pay electronic claims for health care services, and encourages the use of electronic, rather than paper, claims.  ... the biggest winners are expected to be doctors and hospitals, the recipients of those electronic payments (Rovner, 1/5).

Meanwhile, Healthbeat adds some details about federal efforts on electronic medical records and payments.

CQ Healthbeat: CMS Issues Rule Governing Electronic Funds Transfer
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced streamlined standards Thursday for the notification a health plan sends to its bank when it wants to pay a provider electronically. The standards also apply to a "remittance advice notice" that a plan gives to a provider. The term refers to a notice of payment that may or may not accompany the actual payment sent to the provider (Reichard, 1/5).

Also yesterday, Maryland officials announced a new grant from HHS.

The Baltimore Sun: $2 Million In Reimbursements Awarded For Electronic Health Records
Hospitals and other health care providers in Maryland are receiving a total of $2 million in federal money to reimburse them for investments they made in new electronic record systems, state officials said Thursday. The grants were the first in a series being offered in coming years. They were only available to providers who have a certain number of Medicaid patients and already switched to the new system, said Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (Cohn, 1/5).