White Paper: Taking The Paper Out Of Paperwork: How Electronic Administration Can Save The U.S. Health System Billions

By Newt Gingrich

The statistic is stunning – in an economy that annually transmits over 18 billion electronic payments between businesses, consumers and government entities, more than half of all financial transactions in the U.S. healthcare industry are still paperbased. When factoring in the fully loaded cost of labor, printing, postage and handling, this results in upwards of $30B a year in waste.2 It doesn't have to be this way.

Given today's troubled economy, perpetually rising healthcare costs and exploding healthcare budgets as far as the eye can see, we need to make our system leaner, more efficient and more productive.

"It's not about infrastructure," says George Lazenby, chief executive officer of Emdeon, an intermediary revenue and payment cycle solutions provider. The infrastructure is there, the technology exists and everyone is looking for ways to optimize their business processes. So what is standing in the way?