Machine-readable cards on horizon
The largest health plans appear to be in the process of adopting guidelines from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) for machine-readable insurance cards, according to Peter Barry, of Peter T. Barry Co., a Milwaukee-based consulting firm specializing in health care and information systems. Barry is chair of WEDI's initiative on health identification cards.
Barry expects some 50 million standard insurance cards based on the WEDI guide to be available within the next 18 to 24 months. Several states are currently considering mandating standard health insurance cards. Each of those states is considering basing its mandate on the WEDI guide, which requires only essential information.
"It leaves all other information that may be put on the card to the discretion of the card issuer, trusting that the card issuer desires the most effective card and is in the best position to decide these things," Barry says.
While a card must be functional in both an automated and manual setting, the goal is toward increased automated usage. "Implementation of automated use in provider systems will probably take some years," adds Barry.
The most important new development for health insurance cards is the introduction of a standard health plan identifier, which is 10 digits and begins with "9."
Why is a standard health plan identifier critical? Consider the example of a bank charge card, says Barry, which has a long number on the front that we think of as the charge card number, but is really two numbers — the first six digits identify the bank and the remaining digits are the account at that bank.
"Consider what charge card use would be if the first six digits were not there, if a person had to interpret text on the card, then convert that into a code selection on a computer to tell the computer what bank to send the transaction to," says Barry. "Inefficiency and errors — that's where the health industry is. That's why providers photocopy the front and back of a card."
The largest health plans appear to be in the process of adopting guidelines from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) for machine-readable insurance cards, according to Peter Barry, of Peter T. Barry Co., a Milwaukee-based consulting firm specializing in health care and information systems. Barry is chair of WEDI's initiative on health identification cards.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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