Imagine being able to walk into a doctor’s office without having to fill out lengthy medical history forms and complicated insurance claims. An office where all transactions are handled electronically and the only paperwork you (and the nurses) have to deal with is the receipt.
A Boulder company is at the forefront of the creation of a paperless payment system for health care, and officials say its acquisition by Columbus, Ohio-based Banc One Corp. will speed the process.
The Federal Reserve Board approved the acquisition in December. Croghan & Associates will change its name to System One Corp. and will become a Banc One subsidiary. It will remain in Boulder and will retain its current management.
Banc One will lend its electronic data-transfer system and marketing knowledge to Croghan, which has developed the software, hardware and communications system for its process.
Here’s how the system works: A patient is issued the equivalent of a health-care ATM card. When the card is swiped through a machine in the doctor’s office, the computer displays patient information, including the insurance company, the type of coverage and deductibles.
After the patient has been seen and diagnosed, the clinic electronically feeds payment information to Croghan, which sends it on to the computers of the corresponding insurance companies.
That’s where the bank takes over.
“Banc One has a major electronic highway across America,” said John Russell, spokesman for Banc One. “We can use that highway to foster electronic payments . . . and simplify the process.”
Croghan will have access to that highway, and Banc One can process the medical bills and pay the clinic through an electronic fund transfer similar to a credit card or ATM charge.
Patients eventually will be able to use the cards as debit or charge cards, taking care of insurance claims and payment before leaving the doctor’s office.
All the services will be offered a la carte. That is, patients who don’t want a card or the ability to pay immediately can forgo those options and an alternative manual system will still work, using identification numbers.
Croghan, founded in 1991 by Raymond Croghan, also hopes to use Banc One resources to limit capital expenditures needed to set up the system. The company is counting on impending health-care reform measures to increase business as health-care organizations are forced to trim bureaucratic fat.
A pilot system has been in place with Bank One Wisconsin, and Croghan soon will be linking up with all Bank One affiliates as part of the plan.
