42 "Blues" testing transactions
against national associations companion
guide using Edifecs CommerceDesk
Bellevue, WA - August 20, 2003 --
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
has selected Edifecs CommerceDesk,
to manage the HIPAA transaction compliance
process of the 42 national member
plans (Blues) that participate in
the Blue Exchange. The Blue Exchange
facilitates reciprocal coverage between
Blues, allowing a plan in one state
to pay the medical bills for a subscriber
of a plan in another state, and then
be reimbursed electronically.
"The logistics of ensuring that
all participating Blues test to national
standards and to the Blue Exchange
companion guides are very challenging,"
said Sunny Singh, CEO of Edifecs.
"The association has determined
that the best way they've found to
manage the task is through the Community
Enablement model powered by Edifecs
CommerceDesk. With CommerceDesk, they
can efficiently manage all the relationships
in their trading partner community
simultaneously, on multiple levels,
and in an automated manner, rather
than in the traditional one-on-one
fashion," Singh said.
CommerceDesk allows the BCBSA to
provide its members with a customized
step-by-step guide for achieving compliance,
along with the information necessary
for participants to complete each
step in the process. The Association
can easily monitor the progress of
its members as they go through the
transaction testing process. BCBSA
can also use CommerceDesk to communicate
with all its community participants,
groups of participants, or an individual
participant as necessary.
"We appreciate BCBSA being proactive
and using Edifecs CommerceDesk to
manage the transaction compliance
process among all participants in
the Blue Exchange. This will deliver
great value to all the member plans."
said Gene Carruth, Vice President
of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona.
"The ability to continue providing
reciprocal coverage for subscribers
in states across the country is critical
from both the customer service and
business operations perspectives."
"Individual Blue Cross and Blue
Shield organizations across the country
are already using CommerceDesk to
successfully manage the transaction
compliance process with clearinghouses,
providers and vendors in their own
trading partner communities,"
said Sunny Singh, CEO of Edifecs.
"Partnering with the BCBSA makes
the vision of true community enablement
across the Blues community a powerful
reality."
About Edifecs
Edifecs (www.edifecs.com) is a proven
provider of solutions for rapidly
deploying and managing today's trading
partner networks. The Edifecs enablement
solution suite encompasses the CommerceDesk(TM),
SpecBuilder(TM) and XEngine(TM) product
families -- all designed to reduce
cost and time-to-market for companies
deploying trading partner networks.
The Edifecs HIPAA solution provides
enablement technologies to accelerate
the implementation of HIPAA and healthcare
trading communities. HIPAADesk (www.HIPAADesk.com),
powered by Edifecs CommerceDesk, is
the first free and full service HIPAA
compliance checking, testing &
certification facility for the healthcare
industry.
Founded in 1996, Edifecs serves an
installed base of more than 1,500
customers and partners including numerous
integration software & service
providers such as Global eXchange
Services, Microsoft, Inovis, Quovadx,
Sterling Commerce and TIBCO. Edifecs
healthcare clients include Blue Plans,
Medicaids, Commercial Health Plans,
Providers, Vendors and Clearinghouses
such as Abbot Labs, Baxter Healthcare,
BCBS Association, BCBS of Alabama,
BCBS of Oregon, ENS Health, ProxyMed,
WellPoint and many others. Edifecs
is a technology partner for more than
30 industry consortia including UCC,
UN/CEFACT and CompTIA. Based in Bellevue
Washington, Edifecs is privately held.
For more information regarding Edifecs solutions click here.
