Texas Co. Helps The Hartford Expand Workers’ Comp e-bill Nationally

May 14, 2001

Working with partners Corporate Systems of Amarillo, and eStellarNet of Concord, Calif., The Hartford has taken its workers’ compensation e-bill system national. The move follows a year-long pilot program.

e-bill is an Internet processing and payment system that makes billing for workers’ compensation services faster and easier for medical providers by handling bills and supporting medical documentation in a single electronic file.

The Hartford began piloting the system last spring with the southern California members of Concentra Health Services, Inc. of Dallas, and expanded it to Concentra network members in Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin and northern California,.

“We’ve been delighted by the faster and easier bill processing e-bill has delivered,” said Don St. Jacques, assistant vice president, managed care development, at The Hartford. “The new process allows our claim handlers and case managers to respond more quickly to the needs of the insured workers and their employers. It also enables all parties to communicate electronically with our medical providers, which further accelerates the process,” he said.

Greg Gilbert, vice president of reimbursement for Concentra, said, “We now handle a bill only once, which saves time and effort. It’s also made the payment schedule predictable for us, which is a boon to cash flow management.”

e-bill marks a dramatic change from earlier electronic processing of workers’ comp invoices that automate only a small part of the process and still involve manual processing of the bill and supporting documentation necessary to make payment decisions. This new technology platform employed by The Hartford allows documentation materials to be electronically attached to the bill on a secure Internet site, reducing the need for time-consuming manual input of billing data, requests for information and manual transfer of backup documentation needed for a payment to be processed.

Once the bills and attachments are downloaded into the billing system, the software automatically scans the invoice to ensure that all necessary information-such as diagnosis and procedure codes-is entered before it is submitted. The completed invoice is then viewed online by The Hartford’s medical bill examiner and processed for payment.

The processing system, eBillPro, was developed by Corporate Systems, a technology company that provides automation and reporting solutions to insurance and other industries, and is powered by the eStellarNet portal developed by StellarNet, Inc., a provider of connectivity and processing solutions for the workers’ compensation industry.

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Insurance Journal Magazine May 14, 2001
May 14, 2001
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