MGMA: IDs Could Save Providers $1Billion

Englewood, Colo.-headquartered Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) has launched an industry-wide effort calling on health insurers, vendors and healthcare providers to initiate processes to adopt standardized, machine-readable patient ID cards by Jan. 1, 2010, it says.

In an aggressive push to advance the use of this technology, MGMA is asking healthcare professionals to visit www.SwipeIT.org. 

MGMA says it estimates that machine-readable patient ID cards can save physician offices and hospitals as much as $1 billion a year by eliminating unnecessary administrative efforts and denied claims. A machine-readable card compliant with the mandates of the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange costs about 50 cents — just a fraction more than the non-standardized, plastic or paper cards that most insurers now use, MGMA says.