NaviMedix Delivers Online Solution to Neighborhood Health Plan; System Leverages Full Power of the Internet to Reduce Costs, Administrative Inefficiencies

Business Wire, Oct 1, 1999

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 1999--

NaviMedix, Inc. today announced the successful implementation of its NaviNet Web-based software at Neighborhood Health Plan (NHP), a not-for-profit Massachusetts HMO and affiliate of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. NaviNet will replace the tangle of phone calls, faxes and paper forms with a single real time Web-based solution that delivers online referral notification, eligibility verification, specialty referral notification, claims submission and claims status inquiry to NHP providers.

"Realizing the benefits of administrative simplification poses unique challenges for us as we face tight operating margins, disparate practice management systems and evolving technology infrastructures. In partnership with NaviMedix, we're developing a smart long-term solution our provider sites can embrace," says Craig Johnson, NHP Chief Information Officer.

NaviMedix, a Boston software and services company, develops and markets Internet solutions that streamline communications between health plans and physician offices. NaviMedix enables managed care organizations to make physician offices partners in improving business processes while helping physicians simplify administration. The company's objective is to dramatically lower the cost of transactions for both managed care organizations and providers.

NHP expects to save $3 for every dollar it invests in NaviNet. Early results have shown that NaviNet reduces the average referral notification time at NHP's centers from 28 to 5 minutes 90 percent of the time, saving an individual office administrator five to six hours per day. Now NHP and its health centers spend less time on administration and more time concentrating on improving clinical care and member services.

NaviNet is dramatically reducing the volume of phone calls and paper exchanged between physician offices and NHP by electronically generating patient eligibility, referral requests, authorization status and diagnostic information. This real-time exchange has measurably reduced costs for both NHP and its providers. At the first NHP provider site to implement NaviNet, the total cost of processing and managing referrals was reduced by 70 percent.

"The NaviMedix system as it exists today is an integral part of our long-term goal of continuing to foster partnerships with health centers and other providers. But in order for a system like this to be effective, provider sites have to be willing to use it," Johnson says. "That's why we chose NaviMedix. Our provider sites are embracing NaviNet because it makes doing business with us faster and easier."

NHP's providers are using NaviNet 15 to 50 times per day.

The flexibility of NaviNet and its technical implementation team have provided NHP with a system developed to meet the individual needs of its physicians, and has done so far more quickly than the industry average of nine to 15 months.

"To see a concept developed and implemented within months instead of years is almost unheard of in clinical system development. We now have the opportunity to streamline existing processes and embark on innovative ways to manage our medical costs. Perhaps most importantly, staff time can be redirected to more member-focused initiatives," says NHP Director of Clinical Informatics Marilyn Daly.

An added benefit of the NaviNet system, Johnson says, is its low-risk, incremental implementation, which leverages existing legacy applications. This quick, low-risk implementation is important not only for NHP's referral system, but as NHP embarks on additional system initiatives. The ease of adding transactions such as online claims submission within a 90-day timeframe will provide ongoing cost savings.

"By streamlining communications with physician offices we can help our customers improve physician satisfaction and service with faster, more accurate responses to inquiries and requests. NaviNet also gives our customers a competitive advantage by enabling them to implement and modify their proprietary business processes to meet their often changing business objectives," says NaviMedix CEO Will Cowen.

By December, the NaviMedix will pilot online claims submission to NHP physicians.

About NaviMedix

Founded in 1998, NaviMedix is a privately held, venture-backed company providing online solutions to streamline and automate the inefficient paper, fax, and telephone interactions between physician offices and their trading partners, including clinical laboratories, pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers, integrated delivery networks, medical supply companies and financial services companies. Its goal is to become the leading provider of business-to-business communication solutions that enable trading partners to conduct mission critical transactions with physician offices.

NaviMedix will announce soon that three more plans have implemented NaviNet.