The healthcare industry could save $25 billion annually by making a full transition to automating business transactions, according to a Feb. 3 report from Chief Healthcare Executive, citing CAQH research.
Although progress has been made — 90 percent of benefit and eligibility verifications in 2022 were handled electronically, for example — more can be done, according to April Todd, CAHQ chief policy and research officer.
"It's nice to see that keep going up and it would be great to get towards 100 percent here," Ms. Todd said in the report. "There are 18 billion of those transactions. It is the largest transaction in the healthcare industry."
Prior authorizations are, by contrast, not commonly done using automation; fewer than30 percent of those transactions are done electronically, Ms. Todd said.
The industry spent $60 billion on nine common administrative functions compared with $42 billion in 2021, according to the 2022 CAQH Index.
The increase in spending may be an outlier as more people sought services after delaying such due to the pandemic, Ms. Todd said. Labor shortages also contributed as new, untrained staff members were taken on to try and meet patient demand.
The full CAQH report can be found here.