Having workers’ compensation plans in place is important when the unexpected happens. Employers log thousands of injuries every year, which create complex workers’ compensation bills because of the number of parties that touch a claim and the amount of paperwork involved.
Ensuring accuracy and timely submission of these bills is important not only to the companies but also to the workers relying on the subsequent benefits. Streamlining workers’ compensation bill systems helps insurance Payers and healthcare Providers stay competitive by processing higher volumes with less manual effort. Smart Data Solutions (SDS) specializes in machine learning and automation to bring accuracy and faster turnaround times to any workflow.
Workers’ Compensation Bills Systems Can Be Tedious
Anyone involved in the workers’ comp bill process knows that it is typically time-consuming. Collecting proper documentation from the job site or employer, attorneys, and the healthcare Provider can be nothing short of a paperwork nightmare. This complication compounds when operating across state lines, as there are minimal federal standards for workman’s comp bills.
Jason Kolb, VP of Enterprise Accounts at SDS, explains how workers’ comp claims differ from traditional healthcare claims processing:
“Because there is no consistency in the documents, traditionally the task of finding which claim to associate with which documents and then linking them in a system was very time-consuming. SDS automates this by capturing data of the disparate document types, and then using customer-defined business rules to match against a list of active claims.”
The biggest advantage of partnering with SDS for workers’ compensation bills is simplifying the systems that support processing.
Expedite the Workers’ Compensation Bills Process
SDS has management solutions for workers’ compensation bills systems that allow in-house staff to spend less time processing claims while maintaining or even improving transcription accuracy. What before would have been hours of filtering through paper documentation and assigning them to the proper cases, can now be automated, giving healthcare staff more time for strategic initiatives.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 3.4 workers comp claims are filed for every 100 full-time workers per year. Oftentimes a single workers’ comp bill can span over several months and require the proper receipts and notation from several organizations. Imagine compounding this process on a larger scale. This is when streamlining workers’ compensation bill systems becomes essential for businesses to grow and stay competitive.
If an employer has an injured worker who requires physical therapy or long-term rehabilitation, the costs of the medical services, transportation, lost wages, and more all require submission documents attached to the original bill.
While medical data has a standard Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system to operate from, the supporting receipts do not. Keeping these documents organized with said bill can be a tall task, but with SDS’ software, disparate records can be standardized and logged automatically so that little to no human intervention is required, and all pertinent information is routed to the right place.
Organization is a single, but significant, piece of the workers’ comp puzzle. Kolb explains:
Having confidence that documentation will be properly cataloged with accurate data in the correct place allows in-house teams to focus their attention on the business instead of paperwork.
Machine Learning Software Speeds Up Workers’ Compensation Bills Systems
A rule of thumb is that while speed increases, accuracy decreases. While that certainly may be true for human transcription, it no longer applies to machine learning (ML) and automation. Maintaining accuracy is critically important, not only for your own record keeping but to allow recipients like clearinghouses, to have confidence that all the necessary components of a bill are detailed and coherent. As SDS’ technology scans records, it not only accurately transcribes documents and receipts but will learn how to be more efficient for the future. This “machine learning” ensures accuracy of the data being processed.
Automation may be the missing piece to optimizing workers’ compensation bill systems. SDS can help speed up bills and relieve mundane burdens on employees all while standardizing document submission and ensuring accuracy.
Kolb summarizes three questions to ask before starting your path to optimizing workers’ compensation workflows:
If you’re interested in seeing how SDS can help your organization streamline your workflows, get started by visiting our workers’ comp page to learn more about our proprietary technology.