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Project SwipeIT is a health care industry-wide initiative meant to advance the adoption of standardized patient identification (ID) cards containing machine-readable information.
  • The MGMA SwipeIT Savings Model

    Total savings due to implementing electronic registration (dollars per year): $2.2 billion

    Cost Savings Attributable to Implementation of an Electronically Readable Patient ID Card

    Model Assumptions and Raw Inputs

    Values

    Data Source

    Fraction of practices currently using an electronic reader

    0.074

    April 2009 LEARN Research, question 2.

    Fraction of patients using electronically readable ID cards, for practices with readers

    0.20

    April 2009 LEARN Research, question 8, median.

    Time required to register an established patient who presents an electronically readable ID card in practice that has a reader (minutes)

    5.00

     April 2009 LEARN Research, question 9, median.

    Time required to register an established patient who does not present an electronically readable ID card in practice that has a reader (minutes)

    10.00

    April 2009 LEARN Research, question 10, median.

    Number of visits to physician offices (that generate a claim for physician professional services) per year

    901,954,000

    National Center for Health Statistics, 2009. "Health, United
    States, 2008", page 359, 2006 data.

    Number of visits to hospital outpatient departments (that generate a claim for physician professional services) per year

    102,208,000

    National Center for Health Statistics, 2009. "Health, United
    States, 2008", page 360, 2006 data.

    Number of visits to hospital emergency departments (that generate a claim for physician professional services) per year

    119,191,000

    National Center for Health Statistics, 2009. "Health, United
    States, 2008", page 360, 2006 data.

    Number of hospital admissions (that generate a claim for physician professional services) per year

    37,189,000

    National Center for Health Statistics, 2009. "Health, United
    States, 2008", page 391, 2006 data.

    Fraction of claims rejected by payers due to incorrect patient demographic information for patients that are registered by using electronically readable ID cards in practices with card readers

    0.02

    April 2009 LEARN Research, question 11, median.

    Fraction of claims rejected by payers due to incorrect patient demographic information for patients that are registered by using old-fashioned non-electronically readable ID cards in practices with ID card readers

    0.05

    April 2009 LEARN Research, question 12, median.

    Staff time spent to correct the error and resubmit the claim for claims that are rejected due to incorrect patient demographics in practices with card readers (minutes per claim)

    15.00

    April 2009 LEARN Research, question 13, median.

    Fraction of claims rejected by a payer due to incorrect patient demographic information in practices without card readers

    0.05

    April 2009 LEARN Research, question 15, median.

    Staff time spent to correct the error and resubmit the claim for claims that are rejected due to incorrect patient demographics in practices without card readers (minutes per claim)

    15.00

    April 2009 LEARN Research, question 16, median.

    Total employed support staff cost per FTE physician (dollars)

    165,653

    CS07, Multispecialty, page 24, median.

    Total employed support staff benefits per FTE physician (dollars)

    44,008

    CS07, Multispecialty, page 24, median.

    Minutes per hour

    60

    Fact

    Staff wage rate in dollars per hour

    16.02

    See wage assumption worksheet.

    Model Intermediate Outputs

    Fraction of claims per year for physician professional services that originate with an electronic registration

    0.0148

    Calculation

    Fraction of claims per year for physician professional services that originate with a non‐electronic registration

    0.9852

    Calculation

    Time savings per registration by using electronic card (minutes per registration)

    5.00

    Calculation, difference of medians, should use SPSS in future
    to do median of differences.

    Number of claims per year for physician professional services

    1,160,542,000

    Calculation

    Number of claims per year for physician professional services that originate with non-electronic registration

    1,143,365,978

    Calculation

    Ratio of staff benefits to wages

    0.2657

    Calculation

    Staff wage and benefits rate in dollars per hour

    20.27

    Calculation

    Minutes saved per year during registration process by implementing electronic registration

    5,716,829,892

    Calculation

    Hours saved per year during registration process by implementing electronic registration

    95,280,498

    Calculation

    Dollars saved per year during registration process by implementing electronic registration

    1,931,753,287

    Calculation

    Number of claims per year that must be resubmitted due to payer denial due to incorrect patient demographics from non-electronic registration

    57,168,299

    Calculation

    Minutes per year to resubmit claims denied due to payer denial due to incorrect patient demographics from non-electronic registration

    857,524,484

    Calculation

    Hours per year to resubmit claims denied due to payer denial due to incorrect patient demographics from non‐electronic registration

    14,292,075

    Calculation

    Dollars saved per year by not having to resubmit claims denied due to payer denial due to incorrect patient demographics from non-electronic registration

    289,762,993

    Calculation

    Model Final Output: Benefits of Implementing Electronic Registration

    Total savings due to implementing electronic registration (dollars per year)

    2,221,516,280

    Calculation

    Notes

    • This model does not yet estimate the one‐time costs of implementing an electronic registration process.
    • Implementation costs need to be subtracted from implementation benefits to estimate net benefits.
    • This model does not estimate many other benefits of electronic registration.
    • Model does not include paper, toner, and copier depreciation cost of copying patient ID cards during non-electronic registration process.


     Estimated time savings for a typical medical group practice Adobe PDF