The Healthcare Administrative Simplification Coalition (HASC) works with industry leaders, public officials, employers, labor, hospitals, physicians and others to reduce administrative complexity and cost in healthcare.

HASC works to:

• Raise awareness among employers and the healthcare community about the cost of complexity
• Identify strategies that support administrative simplification
• Reduce redundancy in the process of credentialing physicians and other healthcare professionals to participate in health plans and provide services in hospitals and other organizations
• Standardize processes for the healthcare industry to request and report patient health insurance eligibility verification and benefits coverage

2009 Advocacy Report

Bringing Better Value: 
Recommendations to Address the Costs and Causes of Administrative Complexity in the Nation's Healthcare System

This landmark report offers recommendations to educate, collaborate and adopt administrative simplification technologies and processes. Focusing on several critical areas of administrative burden, the report findings suggest that, if appropriately reengineered, relatively simple solutions could yield significant efficiency and cost savings to the industry.

The Costs of Healthcare Complexity

While the U.S. healthcare system is considered one of the most technologically advanced in the world, it is also the most expensive. Based on 2007 figures, the United States spends $7,421 per capita on healthcare — twice as much as other nations spend — while more than 45.7 million Americans lack healthcare insurance.

In addition to the availability of expensive high technology and consumer demand for services, a surprising portion of high costs of health care in the United States is the result of administrative expenses that provide little direct benefit to patients. Hospitals, physicians, medical administrators and insurance companies spend excessive amounts of time on paperwork — time that could otherwise be spent on patient care. 

The simplification of clerical work would potentially reduce healthcare costs by at least 10 percent without affecting the quality of care or having any substantial negative effects. While even greater cost savings are conceivable, a 10 percent elimination of unnecessary clerical work would generate annual savings of as much as $57 billion on healthcare. Our recommendations for achieving savings in four key areas include:

• Encouraging Simplification of the Practitioner Credentialing Process
• Encouraging Simplification in the Healthcare Insurance Eligibility Process
• Encouraging Standardized, Machine-Readable Health Identification Cards
• Encouraging Simplification of Prior Authorization Processes

Download the complete report [PDF]