EFT Reassociation to ERAs Implemented on Orbograph’s Healthcare Payment Automation Center (HPAC)
Billerica, MA, June 23, 2014 – Orbograph, a premier supplier of electronic/paper automation solutions in healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM), as well as recognition solutions for the U.S. check processing market, announced today that the Healthcare Payment Automation Center (HPAC) is successfully running ACH Reassociation to ERA (electronic remittance advices) using NACHA (National Automated Clearing House Association) CCD+ Addenda data with TRN Reassociation trace numbers, enabling transformation of healthcare payment reconciliation processes.
Today’s healthcare payment reconciliation is typically a manual process for healthcare providers as payments evolve from checks and EOBs to ACH and EDI 835 ERAs. The complexity of reconciliation is due to:
- Multiple sources of EDI streaming in from health plans/payers. For example, a 435-bed hospital client has 50 different payers to reconcile.
- Standard EDI 835 files are not always post-ready for importing into the healthcare billing systems, delaying implementation timelines.
- Retrieving ACH CCD+ data from NACHA formatted records can be challenging, depending on where payment processing is completed. Providers must either have access to ACH data through cash management systems, or banks must request information from the Federal Reserve/The Clearing House.
- Full ACH CCD+ data can be complex to aggregate for large providers who receive a wide range of ACH payments from multiple ACH clearing channels or significant on-us ACH volume.
- Checks typically arrive together with paper EOBs at the healthcare provider or lockbox processor and are fully balanced. ACH transactions can be three days prior or latter to EDI 835 ERAs reception.
- Aggregation of totals between paper and electronic is potentially handled on separate systems.
- Providers need to change end-of-month reconciliation processes and learn new system capabilities.
- Many systems do not have reconciliation functionality yet.
HPAC normalizes EDI payment transaction data from both EDI 835 files and EOB (explanation of benefits) forms to streamline posting into practice management/billing systems, as well as automatically matching any source remittance data with ACH trace numbers. This matching process enables healthcare providers to automatically reconcile payments to remittance transactions, streamlining daily and month-end reconciliation.
“Through rigorous, internal testing and a successful field deployment at a large New York hospital, Orbograph has proven the HPAC solution can transform the healthcare payment reconciliation process,” stated Barry Cohen, Co-President of Orbograph.
“The cloud-based HPAC solution is accessible to any healthcare provider, biller, clearinghouse or remittance payment workflow,” stated Joe J. Gregory, Vice President of Marketing at Orbograph. “Ease of access enables providers to move quickly and effectively toward electronic payments and reconciliation.”
About Orbograph
Orbograph (www.orbograph.com), a subsidiary of Orbotech, is a premier supplier of electronic/paper automation solutions in healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM), as well as recognition solutions for the U.S. check processing market. Orbograph technologies are in use in over 1,500 financial institutions, service bureaus and billers processing billions of checks and claims annually. Orbograph solutions are utilized by 20 of the top 30 U.S. financial institutions with in-house check processing. In healthcare payments, the Orbograph Healthcare Payments Automation Center (HPAC) provides a cloud-based platform running innovative EOB conversion technologies to facilitate and streamline the processing of payments and to automate the posting of receivables into practice management systems. Orbograph enables clients to envision more by reducing costs and managing risk while ensuring that achieving more is a reality.