Healthcare Basics
Healthcare Basics
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Main Entities
Healthcare Health
Provider/ insurance
Doctor/ Provider/
Hospital/ Carrier
Facility
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Basic terminology
• Health Insurance - A contract that requires your health insurer to pay some or all
of your health care costs in exchange for a Premium
• Health insurance provider - the health insurance company whose plan pays to
help cover the cost of your care. Also called Payer or Carrier
• Preferred Provider - A provider who has a contract with your health insurer or
plan to provide services to you at a discount
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Basic terminology
• Copayment: One of the ways the member shares medical costs. For example,
a flat fee for certain medical expenses (e.g., $10 for every visit to the
doctor), while your insurance company pays the rest
• Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans – In these major medical plans, the insurance
company enters into contracts with selected hospitals and doctors to furnish services at a
discounted rate. As a member of a PPO, you may be able to seek care from a doctor or hospital
that is not a preferred provider, but you will probably have to pay a higher deductible or co-
payment.
• Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plans – These major medical plans usually make you
choose a primary care physician (PCP) from a list of network providers. Your PCP is responsible
for managing all of your healthcare. If you need care from any network provider other than your
PCP, you may have to get a referral from your PCP to see that provider. You must receive care
from a network provider in order to have your claim paid through the HMO. Treatment received
outside the network is usually not covered, or covered at a significantly reduced level.
• Point of Service (POS) plans – These major medical plans are a hybrid of the PPO and HMO
models. They are more flexible than HMOs, but do require you to select a primary care physician
(PCP). Like a PPO, you can go to an out-of-network provider and pay more of the cost. However,
if the PCP refers you to an out-of-network doctor, the health plan will pay the cost.
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Claims processing – steps
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Explanation of benefits (EOBs)
• EOB documents are protected health information. Electronic EOB documents are
called edit 835 5010 files
• There normally also will be at least a brief explanation of any claims that were
denied, along with a point to start an appeal
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Final statuses attached to a claim
• Finalized
• Paid
• Denied
• Revised – adjudication information has been changed
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Claims pricing based on DRG
• You can ask that your insurance company reconsider its decision.
Insurers have to tell you why they’ve denied your claim or ended your
coverage. And they have to let you know how you can dispute their
decisions
• External review: You have the right to take your appeal to an independent third
party for review. This is called external review. External review means that the
insurance company no longer gets the final say over whether to pay a claim
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Eligibility & Benefits
• Patient eligibility and benefits should be verified prior to every scheduled appointment
• Eligibility and benefit quotes include membership verification, coverage status and other
important information, such as applicable copayment, coinsurance and deductible amounts
• It’s strongly recommended that providers ask to see the member’s ID card for current
information and photo ID in order to guard against medical identity theft. When services
may not be covered, members should be notified that they may be billed directly
• Generally members and Providers have access to the following info, online or through
telephone:
• Patient/Subscriber information
• Group Number
• Group Name
• Plan/Product
• Current Effective Dates
• Copayment*
• Deductible (original and remaining amounts)
• Out-of-pocket (original and remaining amounts)
• Coinsurance
• Limitations/Maximums*
• Preauthorization indicators and contacts
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(Prior/Pre) Authorization process
• Some medical procedures and drugs need prior authorization from the Insurance
providers
• During this process, the insurance provider may request and review medical
records, test results and other information so that they understand what services
are being performed, and are able to make an informed decision
• Typically notified either in writing, or via telephone within two business days of
receiving all necessary documentation. In addition, the member portal of our
website gives the status of your authorization online
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EDI transaction sets in healthcare
• Title I of HIPAA protects health insurance coverage for workers and their
families when they change or lose their jobs
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EDI transaction sets in healthcare
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Sample EDI 837
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T-Set: 270 - Eligibility, Coverage or
Benefit Inquiry
• The EDI 270 Health Care Eligibility/Benefit Inquiry transaction set
is used to request information from a healthcare insurance
company about a policy’s coverages, typically in relation to a
particular plan subscriber
• The 834 transaction may be used for any of the following functions relative to health
plans:
• New enrollments
• Changes in a member’s enrollment
• Reinstatement of a member’s enrollment
• Disenrollment of members (i.e., termination of plan membership)
• The information is submitted, typically by the employer, to healthcare payer organizations who
are responsible for payment of health claims and administering insurance and/or benefits. This
may include insurance companies, healthcare professional organizations such as HMOs or PPOs,
government agencies such as Medicare and Medicaid
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T-Set: 835 - Health Care Claim
Payment/Advice
• The EDI 835 transaction set is called Health Care Claim
Payment and Remittance Advice
• The EDI 837 transaction set is the format established to meet HIPAA requirements for
the electronic submission of healthcare claim information. The claim information
included amounts to the following, for a single care encounter between patient and
provider:
• A description of the patient
• The patient’s condition for which treatment was provided
• The services provided
• The cost of the treatment
• The 5010 standards divide the 837 transaction set into three groups, as follows:
• 837P for professionals
• 837I for institutions
• 837D for dental practices. The 837 is no longer used by retail pharmacies.
• This transaction set is sent by the providers to payers, which include insurance
companies, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider
organizations (PPOs), or government agencies such as Medicare, Medicaid, etc.
These transactions may be sent either directly or indirectly via clearinghouses
• Health insurers and other payers send their payments and coordination of benefits
information back to providers via the EDI 835 transaction set
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T-Set: 276 - Health Care Claim
Status Request
• The EDI 276 transaction set is a Health Care Claim Status Inquiry. It is used by
healthcare providers to verify the status of a claim submitted previously to a payer,
such as an insurance company, HMO, government agency like Medicare or Medicaid,
etc.
• The 276 transaction is specified by HIPAA for the electronic submission of claim
status requests. The transaction typically includes:
• Provider identification
• Patient identification
• Subscriber information
• Date(s) of service(s)
• Charges
• Submitting a 276 status request to a payer is the first step in the claim status
request/response process. The payer provides the requested information in response
to the 276 request using a 277 Claim Status Response transaction
• The use of EDI 276 inquiries, along with the 277 response, replaces the manual
process of managing payments and claims. By submitting the inquiry via EDI with
the 276 transaction, administrators can receive the information more quickly and
with little or no manual intervention
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T-Set: 277 - Health Care Claim
Status Notification
• The EDI 277 Health Care Claim Status Response transaction set is used by
healthcare payers (insurance companies, Medicare, etc.) to report on the status
of claims (837 transactions) previously submitted by providers
• The 277 transaction, which has been specified by HIPAA for the submission of
claim status information, can be used in one of the following three ways:
• A 277 transaction may be sent in response to a previously received EDI 276 Claim Status
Inquiry
• A payer may use a 277 to request additional information about a submitted claim (without a
276)
• A payer may provide claim status information to a provider using the 277, without receiving
a 276
• If the claim was approved or paid, payment information may also be provided in
the 277, such as method, date, amount, etc. If the claim has been denied or
rejected, the transaction may include an explanation, such as if the patient is not
eligible
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HIPAA 4010 to 5010 conversion –
what are the changes?
• Version 5010 compliance date – January 1, 2012
• Important Dates:
• January 1, 2012 - ALL providers must upgrade to Version 5010 in order to
accommodate ICD-10 codes
• October 1, 2013 - ICD-10 codes must be used for all procedures and diagnosis on
and after this date. Claims with ICD-9 codes for services provided on or after October
1, 2013 cannot be paid. This was extended to 2014 I guess (not sure)
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Care Management
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CM – goals and objectives
Steps:
1. Patient identification and comprehensive assessment:
• Patients are identified through direct referrals, by mining administrative claims data (e.g., risk
stratification tools, frequent hospital and emergency room admissions), through screenings and
assessments, and through chart reviews that identify gaps in care.
2. Developing an individualized care plan:
• The health care team — including the care manager, primary care provider, patient and
family/caregiver — agree on goals in a care plan.
3. Care coordination:
• The care manager ensures the patient’s care plan is implemented, communicating and coordinating
across providers and delivery settings. Care manager interventions are identified and documented.
4. Reassessment and monitoring:
• Patient’s progress is monitored toward goal achievement on an ongoing basis, adjusting care plans,
as needed.
5. Outcomes and evaluation:
• The care manager uses the quality metrics (discussed in Modules 7 and 10), assessment and
survey results, and utilization of services to monitor and evaluate the impact of interventions.
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CM Projects
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Medicare
• Medicare is a Federal health insurance program that pays for hospital and medical care for
elderly and certain disabled Americans
• Eligibility:
• An individual must either be at least 65 years old, under 65 and disabled, or any age
with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure that requires dialysis or a
transplant.)
• In addition, eligibility for Medicare requires that an individual is a U.S. citizen or
permanent legal resident for 5 continuous years and is eligible for Social Security
benefits with at least ten years of payments contributed into the system
• The program consists of two main parts for hospital and medical insurance (Part A and Part
B) and two additional parts that provide flexibility and prescription drugs (Part C and Part D)
• Medicare Part A, or Hospital Insurance (HI), helps pay for hospital stays
• Medicare Part B is also called Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI). It helps pay for
medically necessary physician visits, outpatient hospital visits, home health care costs,
and other services for the aged and disabled
• Medicare Advantage Plans (sometimes known as Medicare Part C, or Medicare +
Choice) allow users to design a custom plan that can be more closely aligned with their
medical needs
• In 2006, Medicare expanded to include a prescription drug plan known as Medicare Part
D
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Medicare contd.
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Medicaid contd.
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Consumer-driven health care
(CDHC)
• Refers to third tier health insurance plans that allow members to use Health
savings accounts (HSAs), Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs), or similar
medical payment products to pay routine health care expenses directly, while
a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) protects them from catastrophic medical
expenses
• High-deductible policies cost less, but the user pays routine medical claims
using a pre-funded spending account, often with a special debit card provided
by a bank or insurance plan. If the balance on this account runs out, the user
then pays claims just like under a regular deductible. Users keep any unused
balance or "rollover" at the end of the year to increase future balances, or to
invest for future expenses
• Examples:
• Flexible spending account (FSA)
• Health Reimbursement Account (HRA)
• Health savings account (HSA)
• High-deductible health plan (HDHP)
• Medical savings account (MSA)
• Private Fee-For-Service (PFFS)
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Flexible spending account (FSA)
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Health Reimbursement Account
(HRA)
• Health Reimbursement Accounts or Health
Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) are Internal
Revenue Service (IRS)-sanctioned employer-funded,
tax-advantaged employer health benefit plans that
reimburse employees for out-of-pocket medical
expenses and individual health insurance premiums
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Health savings account (HSA)
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Healthcare Data warehousing
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Data warehousing contd.
Operatio
nal
systems
Staging
area
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Data warehousing requirements
• Reports
• Understanding the user requirements
• Designing the layout
• Defining the elements in the report – business definition
without any ambiguity
• For example, ‘Member ID’ – define whether it is internal or external
Member ID and the number of digits etc.
• Other info
• Frequency of reporting
• Internal or external
• Recipients
• Mode of delivery
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Data warehousing requirements
• Role
• To understand the client requirements related to the analytic
capabilities
• Coordinating with tech folks to provide the vendor with the data
required for analytics
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The Affordable Care Act of 2010
(ACA) – Obamacare – What is it?
• The Affordable Care Act is the nation’s health reform
law enacted in March 2010
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The Affordable Care Act of 2010
(ACA) – Obamacare – impacts
• Insurance companies will make some changes as a result of Obama Care
• There are some lesser-known provisions that will impact insurance companies,
like the medical loss ratio, for example. The medical loss ratio provision states
that 80% of an insurance premium must go to actual paying of coverage and
only 20% may be used for overhead, marketing and profit
• The good news is that insurance companies avoided the worst possible
outcome, which is being subject to market reforms and not having the new,
young, healthy people requiring health insurance. With a health insurance
mandate, the young and healthy demographic that were previously uninsured
will now buy insurance, balancing out the good risk and the bad risk for
insurance companies
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Claims processing flowchart
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HIPAA 4010 to 5010 conversion –
what are the changes?
• A physical street address must be reported for the billing provider’s service address. A PO Box
address will not be accepted
• Only a provider Pay-to address can be a PO Box address
• Require 9 digit zip code
• Enhanced NPI Reporting rules
• Support for atypical providers (taxi drivers, carpenters and personal care providers)
• 837I - Expansion of the number of Diagnosis Codes
• 837I - Present on Admission Indicators can now be reported for diagnosis codes
• 837P - Supports Ambulance related billing
• 837P - Allows reporting of Anesthesia units only in minutes
• Coordination of Benefits – clarification and enhancements on how to report primary, secondary
and tertiary payers for claims transactions
• Remaining Patient Liability can now be calculated for claims transactions
• Adjustment reporting has been clarified now allowing for the Primary payer claim level
adjustment codes reported in the 835 to be sent to the Secondary payer
• 835 - New sections have been added to organize the payment remittance process
• 835 - Claim splitting has been clarified by specifying the use of the MIA or MOA segments
• 835 - Segment has been added for Lost and Reissue Payment to prevent recreation or
retransmittal
• of a remittance
• 835 - Encounter reporting has been clarified
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Plans Comparison
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FACETS – Claim Submission
Software
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List of FACETS Table
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FACETS Tables
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FACETS
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FACETS
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MEDICARE
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MEDICARE
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MEDICARE
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