Cooperative Exchange Launches Online Payer Survey

DALLAS, Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Cooperative Exchange, the nation's recognized resource and representative of the clearinghouse industry, announced today a new online survey that provides a means for health care electronic data interchange (EDI) parties (Users) to evaluate and monitor health care payers' capabilities. Payers will be able to use the results for bench-marking and quality improvement. 

The survey will be completed by providers, clearinghouses, billing companies, direct submitters of claims, practice management organizations, EHR vendors, employers and consumers. Survey areas covered include: sales and contracting; customer service; EDI capabilities; and general performance. To ensure integrity, Cooperative Exchange will verify each respondent. A minimum number of users must respond to each health care payer for maximum analysis.

Joseph Gonzalez, Vice President  of Secure EDI  and  President of Cooperative Exchange, notes why this data is important to users: "The intent of the survey is for providers, vendors, and other front end health care EDI organizations, to evaluate the quality and service of their EDI delivery by payer, in a way that responses can be verified, aggregated and quantified for use by payer organizations to help improve quality and response between the payer and provider organizations."

Angela McKenna, Vice President of sales and account management for Capario and past President of Cooperative Exchange, adds, "This survey will provide for an un-biased, objective and verified view of the health care industry's assessment of the payers' level of service from an EDI perspective. As a vendor that provides solutions to providers and payers, one of the most challenging aspects of the EDI delivery equation is the payer dynamic."

Cooperative Exchange will manage this online confidential survey. Surveys will remain active for twelve (12) months and will be confirmed prior to any updates being posted to the results. Individuals will be entitled to complete a survey for as many payers as they elect, but will only be able to evaluate a specific payer on an annual basis.

Cooperative Exchange will provide customized reports and trending data on the survey results. A five-year history will be maintained to allow for long-term analysis and trending. Results will be made available online to any payer for a monthly fee. Healthcare payers who subscribe will receive access to current metrics on performance, a guarantee of secure and accurate results, 24/7 accessibility and customized reports. It allows health care payers to see their strengths and weaknesses in comparison to the competition. It also provides health care payers a quantitative means to measure the "provider experience."

"Cooperative Exchange promotes and continues to advance electronic data exchange, and we believe this payer survey will improve efficiencies, allow payers to evaluate the feedback specific to their provider organizations, and also allow them to benchmark their products, services, and capabilities with other payer organizations," observes McKenna.

"This exciting new offering will provide a level of transparency previously unavailable, and will help providers, vendors, employers and other industry stakeholders in their evaluation, delivery and administrative processes," remarks Gonzalez.

To register and begin, visit www.cooperativeexchange.org and click on the tab "Payer Survey".

About Cooperative Exchange
Cooperative Exchange was established in 2002 to promote and advance electronic data exchange for the healthcare industry by improving efficiency, advocacy and education to industry stakeholders and government entities.  Members include: ACS EDI Gateway; American Medical Association (AMA); Availity; AXIOM Systems; CareMedic Systems; Capario; ClaimLogic; Claimsnet; eProvider Solutions; Gateway EDI; GE Healthcare; GHN‐Online; HDM Corp.; Healthcare Billing and Management Association (HBMA); Health-e-Web; Jopari Solutions; Medical Electronic Attachment (MEA); NextGen Healthcare; OfficeAlly; OptumInsight; RealMed Corporation; Secure EDI; Siemens HDX; The SSI Group, Inc. and ZirMed   In 2010, Cooperative Exchange members connected with over 60% of all submitting providers, over 5,200 payer connections and processed over 1.2 trillion claims transactions with a value of over one trillion dollars.

Contact:
Tim McMullen, JD, CAE, Executive Director
866-238-4440; [email protected]

SOURCE Cooperative Exchange