Tommy G. Thompson, Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Appointed Chairman of HealthcarePays, Inc. Board of Directors

RICHMOND, Va., Dec. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthcarePays (HCP) (@HealthcarePays), an industry-owned "payment network" designed to cut healthcare costs by effectively reducing waste and fraud, announces Tommy G. Thompson as a member of its board and its chairman.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131218/LA35641LOGO)

HCP employs an industry-owned network for healthcare payment authorization and processing that is proprietary, standardized and compliant with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and all state and federal laws. Employers, providers and insurance companies are joining HCP to combat waste and fraud, create efficiencies of healthcare payment processing and access industry-wide data cube analytics. 

Thompson says he's joining HealthcarePays to combat the lack of cost transparency and rampant waste and fraud that are draining the U.S. healthcare system of hundreds of billions each year.

"There is little doubt that the future financial well-being of both the federal and state governments depends in, large part, on controlling healthcare payment inefficiencies," said Thompson.  "It makes little sense that the U.S. has no overarching healthcare industry payment network to check for fraud and authorize payments by examining all the payments in the system, similar to what is in place in our financial services sector.  I'm joining HealthcarePays to establish the first industry-owned network of this kind.  The leaders in the areas of employers, health plans and governments are encouraged to join us in this unique opportunity to create healthcare accountability through payment automation."

Key healthcare accountability challenges include:

• The National Healthcare Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA), a watchdog group, cites information from the FBI that anywhere between $70 billion and $234 billion is lost annually to healthcare fraud. (Source: Reuters/Huff Post Health News http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/13/health-care-fraud_n_848691.html)
• PricewaterhouseCoopers research found that wasteful spending in the health system has been calculated at more than half of all health spending. (Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers http://www.pwc.com/us/en/healthcare/publications/the-price-of-excess.jhtml)
• Only 10 percent of all healthcare claim payments are made electronically, in an industry that represents more than $2.7 trillion in annual healthcare spend, or 17.9 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (Source: http://www.ushealthcareindex.org/resources/USHEINationalProgressReport.pdf and Source: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NHE-Fact-Sheet.html) 

"HealthcarePays offers a singular solution to one of the biggest problems facing healthcare – lack of cost transparency in the healthcare system," said Thompson. "The time is now to tackle issues of transparency, inefficiency, and waste and fraud head on, HealthcarePays and its industry members are working to be part of a real solution to our healthcare crisis. I'm looking forward to providing leadership to the board as HealthcarePays continues to build out the first national payment network for the healthcare industry."

HCP interacts with all existing healthcare industry organizations including employers, hospital systems, physician groups, insurance companies, government payers such as Medicaid and Medicare, intermediaries, clearinghouses and banks.

As Secretary of Health and Human Services and Governor of Wisconsin, Thompson became a champion for welfare and Medicare reform, and had a reputation for fighting for the federal funding needed to improve public health.

"Tommy is a visionary and has a long track record of accomplishments in health services," said HealthcarePays Chief Executive Officer Dave Adams. "He's been advocating for healthcare reform throughout his impressive career in public and private service. We are fortunate to have him as a leader and an evangelist for our cause to reduce healthcare costs in the U.S."

About Tommy G. Thompson

Tommy G. Thompson was the 42^nd and longest serving Governor of the State of Wisconsin from 1987 to 2001.  Thompson also served from 2001 to 2005 as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Thompson has held numerous important posts including as Chairman of AMTRAK, Independent Chairman of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and served on the boards of various other publicly and privately held entities.  Thompson has been called a "pioneer" for two landmark initiatives, the Wisconsin Works welfare reform and school voucher programs.  During his time as HHS Secretary, Thompson provided key leadership in the post 9-11 environment, reorganizing HHS, increasing funding to the National Institutes of Health, increased the responsiveness of the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid and working through the backlog of waiver requests thereby providing health insurance to 1.8 million low income Americans.

About HealthcarePays

HealthcarePays (HCP) is an industry-owned "payment network" designed to cut healthcare costs. HCP, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, with its technology group based in Carlsbad, California, provides a fast, secure, electronic network that simplifies and improves the healthcare payment system. HCP streamlines the movement of healthcare payments and filters such payments among providers, health plans, self-insured employers, government payers, intermediaries, clearinghouses and banks in the U.S. The secure network is highly efficient, cost effective and fully compliant with the Affordable Care Act and other state and federal laws. www.healthcarepays.com.  https://twitter.com/healthcarepays;  https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthcarepays.

Media Contact:
Bonnie Shaw, Clearpoint Agency
[email protected]
760.230.2424

SOURCE HealthcarePays, Inc.