Claims on the web to cut ACC costs

By ADAM GIFFORD

The Accident Compensation Corporation is testing a new system under which doctors can file claim forms electronically.

The $750,000 electronic message gateway, developed for ACC by Sun Microsystems agent SolNet, is being touted as a flagship for the Government's new e-government strategy.

ACC chief executive Garry Wilson said the electronic gateway would improve service and lower costs from dollars a form to cents a form.

"The first phase of the contract deal will enable web filing of ACC claim forms by health providers," Mr Wilson said.

"This will provide ACC with more accurate and timely information from GPs and other providers, it makes it easier for them to claim from us, and ultimately allows ACC to respond more quickly to both health providers and claimants."

He said about 80 per cent of claims involved only the payment of medical costs for treatment.

"ACC has about six million transactions a year. That's why ACC has been working on moving to e-commerce tools wherever we can use them."

Some 25 GP sites around the country are involved in the trial.

Mr Wilson said the ACC branch structure was being reorganised so the majority of straightforward claims could be dealt with by call centres, while frontline staff handled intensive case-management.

The gateway is being built with iPlanet e-commerce solutions from a Sun-Netscape alliance.

It will handle electronic filing, validation and processing of the basic accident claim form, the ACC45.

The system will be hosted on Sun Enterprise and Netra servers. It makes extensive use of Java, Java2 Enterprise Edition and XML (extensible markup language), which allows the creation of standardised electronic messaging protocols.

Security is maintained through 128 bit ciphers and 1024 bit digital certificates.

SolNet Wellington branch manager Mark Botherway said his company did extensive presale work to test the electronic messaging concept, allowing the system to be rolled out in less than six weeks.

"Part of our philosophy is to avoid the smoke and mirrors approach, so we did the work in a way which is reusable. That bought us a few weeks on our competitors and gave us confidence in terms of the scope of the project," Mr Botherway said.

The system was client neutral, so health providers did not need to buy new equipment or software to use it.

"We're talking to the practice management software vendors, who are keen to work with us to make sure the system is compatible with their products."

He said the technology offered the ACC a substantial infrastructure to deliver other products as it web-enabled its processes.

ACC's general manager for business technology, Henry Carr, said SolNet's solution supported integration with existing legacy and ACC Pathway case management applications, and with the various patient management systems used by health providers around New Zealand.