Leaky data integration costs billions
A new study says bad data integration results in $342 billion in lost health care benefits every year.
("The Economics of Eligibility" / Meritalk)
What: “The Economics of Eligibility: The Cost of Eligibility and Verification Challenges for Government Healthcare Benefits,” a MeriTalk survey of 155 federal, state and local health IT professionals.
Why: Mismatched and diverse types of data processing systems are costing governments billions. The MeriTalk study, underwritten by big data solutions provider MarkLogic Corp., looked at the challenges health and human services agencies have integrating, managing and accessing a vast amount of highly disparate patient information. The study said data integration was cited as the number one challenge by respondents, who say it results in $342 billion in lost benefits per year. The loss was based on the estimated $1.7 trillion in total health care benefits paid out annually by departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture, and the Social Security Administration.
Forty-seven percent of respondents said a focus on data integration could eliminate significant financial loss, with faster and more accurate results for agency service customers. Forty-three percent said their current data integration and processing systems cripple their agency’s ability to meet beneficiary needs.
Health care IT professionals are widely displeased with existing infrastructure, according to the study. Just 22 percent of managers said their current systems were “analytical” and only16 percent called their systems “intuitive.”
Verbatim: “Today’s agencies take more than three work weeks to confirm benefit eligibility. Even with the lengthy process, case workers estimate 11percent of the people who receive government health care benefits are not actually eligible.”
Full report: Read the study here.