Archive for the ‘Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)’ Category

Healthcare EDI Standards – A Critical Component of Efficient Healthcare Delivery

Friday, October 9th, 2009

One industry where EDI plays an important role is healthcare where uniform standards ensure smooth transactions between both private and government sponsored health insurance plans and the healthcare provider.

These standards are mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a law passed in 1996 to provide standards for both automating business processing and keeping patient records secure and private.

There are several steps to how doctors submit claims to insurers to be paid for the services they render. The first step is the software program they use, which all now comply with the HIPAA standards. However, some doctors use other applications for this in which case they have to translate their information into an EDI format. Insurers cannot and will not accept anything other than EDI formatted information due to the HIPAA law.

Beyond this, the data is transmitted from the doctor’s office to the payer using either a point-to-point connection or a clearinghouse.

Check out this new article in the information technology knowledge center at ITStaffing-e.org and learn more about the important role EDI plays in the healthcare industry.

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Enforcing IT Standards in an Ironclad Fashion Can Be Counterproductive

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Information technology professionals often view things as an absolute choice between right and wrong, black and white and so on.

IT standards are like about anything else…there are no absolutes. Gray areas do exist where exceptions to standards inevitably rise. An engineer may want to purchase a software program IT hasn’t approved of or a company vice president may want some special cell phone or laptop.

While we love our standards, most other people in the organization are not familiar with them - much like we’re probably not too familiar with human resources or purchasing standards.

Standards are a good thing and necessary but in of themselves, they do not resolve anything. If they did, there would be no need for managers to dissect each argument for or against. Simply saying no and hiding behind the published standards will do nothing but create animosity at your company.

IT standards are developed to help make the company more efficient and productive…notable goals indeed.

Recognize there are some situations that an exception to the published standards is valid and find ways to work around it. When developing IT standards, determine which ones absolutely must be followed and which ones are less important that have some flexibility.

In the end, remember that standards are a means to an end, not the end itself.

Learn more about IT standards and the importance of being open minded when dealing with them in this Forbes magazine article.

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Online Beneficiary Management Service Latest Example of EDI Integration

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Just to give you a real-world of example of electronic data interchange (EDI), First Dearborn Life Insurance Company has just announced a new system allowing employees to make their group life insurance beneficiary designations without completing a paper form.

Employees will have access to the system 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Tony Trani, president and CEO of First Dearborn said in a press release “It will lower costs by eliminating paper and utilizing a more efficient online process. It will give employers a well-organized management system that provides clear-cut, secure records of employee beneficiary designations.”

See this article at TechWeb.

Learn the ins and outs of how an EDI system like this would work for you at the information technology knowledge center ITStaffing-e.org today!

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Who Develops Standards for Electronic Data Interchange?

Friday, June 19th, 2009

EDI plays a critical role in operating a business in today’s globalized economy. To facilitate the electronic exchange of business information, standards have to be developed.

In the U.S., these standards are referred to as ASC-X12 and are developed by a group of the same name chartered in 1979 by the American National Standards Association. X12 facilitates electronic business transactions by establishing a common, uniform language.

These EDI standards make it possible to conduct nearly all B2B transactions over a computer – in fact, there are over 275 unique transaction sets for a wide variety of industries.

The ASC-X12 committee is broken down into five different subcommittees: Communications and Control, Finance, Government, Insurance and Transportation.

Learn more about the organization and how they develop the EDI standards that are so important for your business to operate efficiently a new article entitled Uniform Standards Assures EDI Solutions Effectively Exchange Information between Computer Systems at the IT knowledge center ITstaffing-e.org.

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What is Electronic Data Interchange?

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

You’ve probably heard this term swirling around when discussing IT solutions for your organization…Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI, is simply an exchange of information between different computer systems within an organization or between different organizations.

Examples abound to the practical uses of EDI and it is most likely a part of everyone’s life in some form or another.

One use that touches most people is in banking - Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is a form of EDI commonly used to electronically deposit paychecks, debit consumer bank accounts for ATM withdrawals and purchases and debit bank accounts for mortgage and utility payments.

EDI brings many benefits to an organization, including labor cost savings, time savings and reduction in errors.

Read the article Electronic Data Interchange – The Fundamentals of Business Data Exchange in the information technology knowledge center ITstaffing-e.org for a more in-depth, but simple explanation of what this technology is and how it touches everyone.

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