July 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 7
Insurance providers may supply the push
Physicians who resist "teching up" may feel a strong push to do so from insurance providers.
AAFP Past President John Tudor Jr., M.D., of Murray, Utah, currently serves as medical director of a managed care organization in the state. Tudor sees a growing trend toward establishing instantaneous online access to all transactions between physicians and managed care organizations. "Physicians need to figure out how to plug into that," said Tudor. "Are you going to be in the system or cut out of it?"
Aetna U.S. Healthcare spokesperson Jill Griffiths said physicians benefit from Aetna's E-PayTM program, implemented in 1998. "If physicians submit referrals and claims electronically, we pay them within 15 business days," Griffiths said.
Currently, Aetna is receiving 40 percent of claims and 50 percent of referrals electronically, Griffiths said.
To encourage physicians to increase their electronic sophistication, Aetna is poised to launch a Web site that will give physicians in its network quick access to valuable information, including performance reports, coverage policy bulletins and links to organizations such as the CDC.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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