Award-winning Irena Trajkovski’s superpower is her team

September 17, 2020 Discovery Health Partners Blog Post

Irena Trajkovski, Senior Technical Project Manager at Discovery, is a winner of this quarter’s Accountability in Action award. For Irena and many in IT, sitting in front of a computer screen all day can make it difficult to see the big picture and understand how their work helps the company achieve its goals. That all changed when Discovery implemented its accountability program. Irena said, “It makes my work more meaningful. It’s motivating to know that what I do as a project manager contributes to Discovery’s larger goals.”

Beginning in 2019, Discovery built a culture of accountability that helps employees think and act in new ways to achieve key company results. The program is founded on four best practices of accountability:

Identifying gaps in execution
Personally owning responsibilities and aligning them to the company’s key results
Creatively and collaboratively working on solutions
Actively executing on solutions while building an environment of trust

Irena embodies these traits in her work. In March 2020, Irena led a special project to convert COB client data from an existing platform to the company’s new ReThink tool. The new data analytics platform gives claims auditors the tools they need to work more efficiently and more easily identify recovery opportunities for clients. Crucial to the success of the program was migrating data to the new platform and ensuring its accuracy without interrupting auditors’ work.

The accountability program played a key role in the success of the project.

“The accountability program changed the perspective of project management,” said Irena. “It empowers everyone, regardless of their role, to know that they can make an impact. If they see something, they can take the initiative to do something.”

The program helps employees identify whether their behavior is “above the line” or “below the line,” Irena explained. “We can call out ‘below the line’ behavior, encouraging others and examining what we can do personally to stop complaining about circumstances and, instead, go the extra mile. That has been very impactful for me as a project manager and for the whole team.”

One example of this happened when Irena and her team lacked quality assurance resources to test their work. Rather than letting it stop them, the team asked themselves what they could do about it. They identified someone on the team who had a similar skill set and took the initiative to fill that role.

When asked about the impact of the program, Irena said, “It has really provided a breath of fresh air for our company and inspires and empowers people to feel like they can make a difference. It connects our work to the company’s mission and goals.”

Irena credits her team for her success with the accountability program. “My superpower is my team,” she said. “I work with a team of talented individuals. When they are doing their best, it motivates me to do my best.”

When she’s not busy at work, Irena is busy at home with two toddlers, ages two and three. She enjoys going on nature walks with her husband and kids, doing daily yoga or Pilates, and trying new recipes in the kitchen.

If you’d like to learn more about the steps to accountability and building this kind of culture at your organization, we recommend the book The Oz Principle.

Your COB questions answered

July 23, 2020 Discovery Health Partners Blog Post

As we meet with health plans of all shapes and sizes across the country, we’re frequently asked for advice regarding the Coordination of Benefits process, vendor selection, and orchestration with internal COB teams. Here, we share several of the common questions and our responses.

Why consider Discovery Health Partners’ COB solution?

Your health plan’s success is based on the speed and accuracy of claims payments. Up to 15 percent of all members have other health insurance in any given year, costing plans millions in higher payments and administrative costs.

The Discovery COB solution is designed to go beyond other COB vendors by identifying more members with additional coverage—leading to less provider and member abrasion, additional claims recoveries, and avoided future expenses. Leveraging the power of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and predictive modeling, Discovery effectively integrates both traditional and non-traditional data sources to identify and determine the most successful indicators or combination of indicators of other coverage. We then use this information to automatically update analytic models to reflect that learning.

Does our organization need to change our existing COB processes?

No, your organization does not need to change its existing COB processes. Our COB solution is designed to work in concert with your existing internal and/or external vendor processes by harnessing the power of data mining and analytics to identify additional opportunities for recovery. To minimize duplication of efforts, our highly experienced staff works in partnership with your in-house COB, Operations, and IT teams. This enables your organization to retain current staff and gain additional savings. Our solution provides health plans with a “safety net” that delivers considerable incremental recovery opportunities with minimal disruption to operations.

How is Discovery’s COB solution different from internal operations or external vendors?

We built Discovery on both our staff’s deep subject matter expertise and the experiences learned while delivering successful payment integrity programs. Unlike traditional vendors that heavily rely on direct outreach, Discovery’s COB solution combines advanced technologies and extensive healthcare expertise to look at member eligibility more holistically, resulting in an increased number of high-value opportunities often missed by traditional means.

What does Discovery’s COB process look like?

Discovery takes a very flexible approach to its COB solution to accommodate different clients’ needs. Some of the options we offer with our COB solution include: mirroring a client’s internal COB team approach, acting as a turnkey vendor for COB efforts, focusing our COB efforts on all lines or business, and performing COB for only certain LOBs and/or claim types.

Does line of business matter?

No, line of business—whether commercial, Medicare, or Medicaid—does not matter. Discovery’s extensive knowledge of the various rules and regulations for each line of business allows us to perform COB services for all your covered lives. Discovery’s propriety algorithms and mining efforts are customized to deliver the most value possible across all your lines of business.

What should our organization look for when evaluating COB vendors?

The payment integrity market includes a wide range of COB vendors who offer to maximize recoveries and prevent future costs. When evaluating vendors, here are some things to think about:

Data: Where is the potential vendor getting its data and is the data relevant to your plan?

Expertise: What type of clients does the COB vendor work with today? Are they specialized in one line of business or do they work across multiple? Does the vendor have folks with plan-side experience?

Satisfaction: Does the vendor have a track record of delivering value to its clients?

Flexibility: Is the vendor flexible enough to wrap around your current team?

Technology: Is the vendor using technology like AI and machine learning to look at eligibility more holistically?

Research and development: Is the vendor relying on standardized practices that “worked before”? Or do they have a team of seasoned research analysts dedicated to looking for new rules, regulations, data sources, and data points to deliver additional value?

Full-service capabilities: Does the vendor offer solutions spanning all phases of the claims lifecycle (e.g., prospective, retrospective, hospice, etc.)?

Security: Is the vendor HIPAA and HITRUST compliant? What security standards and access policies are in place?

Partnership: Is the vendor willing to learn about your organization, what’s important you, and how to support your COB process and goals? Is this a joint collaboration and journey? Where does your plan line up with the vendor’s other clients? Will you be a priority for them?

Discovery is more than just another vendor—we are your partner, looking out for you every step of the way with proactive insight and information. Is this what you’re getting today? Learn more about our Coordination of Benefits solution.

Protecting payment integrity through client-centered support

April 21, 2020 Monica Frederick Blog Post

Unexpected events like the COVID-19 pandemic make it increasingly difficult for health plans to manage costs and ensure payment integrity. We recently sat down with Monica Frederick, Vice President, Account Management for Discovery Health Partners, to discuss how Discovery’s people and account management approach contribute to our clients’ success.

You’re a newer member of the Discovery Account Management Team. Can you share your experience prior to Discovery?

Over the past 20 years, I’ve held numerous sales and business development positions to support healthcare organizations in bringing new patient care modalities to the market. My experience on the medical side gives me insight into how managed care organizations can strengthen their payment integrity efforts so they can better manage costs and continue to focus on member care.

What makes Discovery a successful team and what are we doing differently to support our clients’ success?

Discovery has built a solid reputation for providing value to health plans by helping to solve their payment integrity challenges. We owe our success to our exceptional people and culture of accountability. Every employee across the organization understands the importance of their role and how they contribute to our clients’ success. And I see the whole organization working tirelessly to anticipate customers’ needs and earn their trust.

Communication is a big part of our approach to account management at Discovery. We talk to clients frequently in person and virtually, and we also conduct client surveys to hear directly from our clients on how we’re doing and how we can continue to provide profound value to our clients’ organizations.

Through this hands-on approach, we’ve learned that we do many things right. Clients especially appreciate how we advise them to determine the best course of action for their operations and provide timely follow-up to address their concerns. This valuable feedback also helps us identify opportunities where we can improve our processes and solutions to better meet clients’ needs.

In addition, we have a Client Council that brings together individuals across our client base whose voices influence the future of our business. We host in-person and virtual meetings with our Client Council to deepen relationships and understand what clients need to be successful. These meetings not only provide clients with valuable networking opportunities, but also offers clients opportunities to share insights and best practices with other health plan leaders and drive future innovations.

What is Discovery’s approach to account management, and how do we drive value throughout the entire engagement with a client?

Our approach is flexible to meet each client’s unique needs, but it always starts with earning their trust, by getting to know them and understanding their business operations. We listen closely to their concerns and create a plan that addresses their challenges and aligns with their strategy and priorities.

When clients join Discovery, we put together an implementation team with the right skills and specific expertise to ensure a smooth, accurate, and efficient implementation. Our approach is flexible and can wrap around or come behind existing vendors and processes already in place. Discovery’s multi-disciplinary teams work collaboratively and our experts evaluate each client individually. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Once implementation is completed, an internal hand-off to the Account Management team occurs and all unique attributes and needs for each client are discussed in detail. A dedicated account manager takes the lead to provide guidance and manage day-to-day activities and communicate the status of ongoing projects every step of the way. We don’t just hand over reports; we take time to meet regularly with clients to review their information in a way that’s meaningful so we can make recommendations for improvements and achieve their desired results.

What are some of the ways Discovery helps health plans address unexpected payment integrity challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic?

COVID-19 is unlike any event the healthcare industry has seen in modern times, thus health plans are faced with challenges they could not have imagined just a few months ago. Not only do health plans need to ensure their members receive the care they need and support their providers, health plans must also keep up with individual states’ mandates regarding “non-essential” claims processes and review of COVID-19 related claims. At the same time, they are struggling with reallocating resources to support critical COVID-19 initiatives while managing the shift to a remote workforce.

Discovery is proactively reaching out to clients to make recommendations, based on their business, to help protect premium revenue, pick up productivity shortfalls as needed, and help them protect their workforce. We continue to work diligently on behalf of clients as an extension of their teams to ensure they get the right information to support the continuity of their operations.

Discovery went remote with payment integrity operations over a year ago, so we’re in a great position to help support our clients business during the pandemic. Discovery views challenges as an opportunity to learn from individual clients’ needs. As COVID-19 plays out, we will continue to partner with clients to make sure we are supporting them and their challenges are addressed in a timely manner.

Find out how Discovery Health Partners can help contribute to your payment integrity success in 2020. Contact us today!

eBook: Restoring millions for your Medicare Advantage plan

April 9, 2020 Discovery Health Partners eBook

eBook: Restoring millions for your Medicare Advantage plan

Correctly paid Medicare Advantage premiums are a critical source of revenue for many health plans

Unlock the hidden value in your data to identify root causes of errors and collect the full value of premiums owed to your plan.

Download our eBook and find out how a Premium Restoration strategy can help you:

Identify members with premium restoration potential
Improve process efficiencies
Monitor the financial impact
Maintain ongoing premium restoration activities

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How the ESRD process works. And why it sometimes doesn’t.

Members with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) significantly impact your Medicare Advantage plan—learn how to navigate the complex process for recovering millions in underpaid premiums.

End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) FAQs

Discovery addresses some of the frequently asked questions regarding End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and explains how ESRD validation works.

Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) FAQs

Discovery addresses some of the frequently asked questions around Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) validation and explains how Medicare Advantage plans can ensure accurate premiums from CMS.

Award-winning Discovery employee proves that small acts of accountability make a big impact

Discovery’s accountability culture motivates employees to work at a higher level for their own success and help the company achieve its key results. The Accountability in Action award has been given to Beverly Orwig, MSP Recovery Specialist.

Industry voices—ensuring premium revenue accuracy during COVID-19

Discovery VP of Eligibility Operations Jeff Martin shares the important role Premium Restoration services play for MA plans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Protecting payment integrity through client-centered support

Discovery discusses how our client-centric approach to account management helps protect payment integrity.

Enhancing premium restoration in four steps

Find out which four steps you can take to capture underpaid premiums and ensure accurate premium payments going forward for your Medicare Advantage members.

Restoring Medicare premium revenue during COVID-19

Discover the reasons why Medicare Advantage plans might be losing millions in Medicare premium revenue and what you can do to ensure premium integrity.

ESRD: Finding and restoring underpaid CMS premiums in five steps

Learn what you can do to ensure your Medicare Advantage plan doesn’t miss out on millions of premiums dollars from CMS for members with end-stage renal disease.

Fixing payment integrity at the source

Find out how eligibility management plays a role in maximizing recovery opportunities, improving cost avoidance strategies, and creating premium restoration possibilities.

View all

Infographic: Fixing payment integrity at the source

March 19, 2020 Discovery Health Partners Infographic

It’s a known fact that improper payments abound in healthcare. Given the effect that eligibility data can have on claims payments, a connected payment integrity approach is essential. Often, challenges arise from multiple sources of data, conflicting or inaccurate data, data integration challenges, manual workflows, multiple reporting systems, and more.

When eligibility errors occur, they affect many payment integrity areas such as coordination of benefits (COB), subrogation, and Medicare secondary payer (MSP) validation. Failing to address these issues leads to incorrectly paid claims, improper reimbursements, or claims that shouldn’t be paid at all—costing your plan millions.

Find out the top three causes of eligibility errors and learn how a connected payment integrity approach can help.

Fixing payment integrity at the source

February 6, 2020 Jeff Martin Blog Post

“New year, new me.” Seems like we hear this at the beginning of every year and hold on to the promise of moving on from the past and setting new goals for the future. Likewise, healthcare organizations are kicking off 2020 by charting new paths to address old problems and expanding into new initiatives to stay ahead of the competition.

Priorities such as increasing member satisfaction, provider relationships, and regulatory compliance remain top of mind for many health plans, which makes it a good time to take a fresh look at your payment integrity strategies and resources. Now is the time to evaluate how well your plan is maximizing recovery opportunities, improving cost avoidance strategies, and exploring premium restoration possibilities. To do this, you need to start at the source of your payment integrity challenges: eligibility data.

The impact of eligibility errors

It’s a known fact that improper payments abound in healthcare, many of which stem from eligibility errors made as a result of multiple data sources, outdated technology, manual processes, and members with other insurance coverage. When eligibility errors occur, they affect many payment integrity areas such as coordination of benefits (COB), subrogation, and Medicare secondary payer (MSP) validation. Failing to address these issues leads to incorrectly paid claims, improper reimbursements, or claims that shouldn’t be paid at all—costing your plan millions.

According to Gartner, billions of dollars are spent every year in improper claims payments across commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid lines of business. Gartner research states, “Payer CIOs must get proactive and leapfrog current performance by focusing on prospective payment integrity capabilities.” With this in mind, what can you do to strengthen your payment integrity approach?¹

Identify inaccurate eligibility data

When taking a close look at eligibility data, your plan will want to determine which claims may have been paid incorrectly as a result of inaccuracies. We estimate that 20% of a plan’s membership will have other insurance, and of that 20%, the other insurance will be primary 17.5% of the time. For a 200,000-member plan, this represents nearly $5.4 million in incorrectly paid claims. When statistics like this are uncovered, the plan quickly realizes how important it is to keep its eligibility data in check.

Determine a cost-avoidance strategy

Avoiding improper payments is a core tenet of any payment integrity strategy. Accurate and trusted eligibility data plays a key role. We estimate that the same 200,000-member plan could save over $13.4 million by avoiding incorrect payments. With the right cost avoidance strategies founded on accurate eligibility data, the plan stands to see a significant impact to its bottom line.

Look beyond dollars and cents

When evaluating your payment integrity strategy, you will want to think beyond dollars and cents. Quality eligibility data will have a positive effect on administrative efficiency, member satisfaction, and provider relations.

By avoiding improper payments in the first place, you avoid the need to rebill, saving you and your staff valuable time and energy that might be channeled toward other payment integrity initiatives.

Member satisfaction is a key priority for any health plan. In fact, the member experience drives performance on CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems), which is a key driver of Star ratings. Eligibility data drives a diverse number of systems and processes including registration, enrollment, care provision, wellness, and customer care. All of these areas influence your members’ experiences with your plan.

Lastly, providers depend on prompt, accurate payment. When claims are denied as a result of recurrent eligibility issues, payer-provider relationships already burdened by administrative complexity are further strained. Ensuring accurate eligibility data and determinations not only improves efficiencies, it also helps to accelerate reimbursements, greatly improving relationships and alignment.

Consider a connected payment integrity approach

Given the effect that eligibility data can have on payments, you will want to consider a connected payment integrity approach and address any gaps in your technology. Often, challenges arise from multiple sources of data, conflicting or inaccurate data, data integration challenges, manual workflows, multiple reporting systems, and more. By creating a technology environment that can support connected payment integrity functions (e.g., claims recovery, subrogation, and COB), business managers and IT can come together in their thinking and create a single, trusted source of eligibility data.

Contact Discovery Health Partners today to find out how we can support your payment integrity initiatives in 2020 and beyond.

¹Gartner, “U.S. Healthcare Payer CIOs Must Adopt Prospective Payment Integrity to Thwart Improper Claims Payment and Fraud,” February 13, 2018.

Jason Brown on the road ahead for payment integrity

January 16, 2020 Jason Brown Blog Post

As the industry transitions from volume to value-based healthcare, health plans face increasing pressure to better manage costs and ensure payment integrity. We recently sat down with Jason Brown, CEO of Discovery Health Partners, to get his thoughts on recent trends and how they’re shaping the road ahead in 2020.

Healthcare continues to change and evolve. What do you see as some of the trends setting the stage for optimizing payment integrity?

Health plans face a number of challenges when it comes to ensuring the right care is provided to the right member for the right amount. Complex billing processes, changing regulations, outdated and disparate data systems, and overlapping coverage all contribute to improperly paid claims. Today, nearly a third of claims are paid incorrectly, leading to billions in administrative waste.

In 2020 and beyond, we anticipate health plans will continue to struggle with rising healthcare costs, numerous competing priorities, and a lack of resources. Furthermore, changing regulations and mandates will continue to add layers of administrative and clinical complexity to a system already bogged down in paperwork. While there is no clear path to cost containment, there are ways health plans can work toward transforming their payment integrity approaches. An example is leveraging advanced technologies to move from retrospective payment to prospective payment—by detecting improper claims before they are paid, health plans can keep costs in check, increase member satisfaction, and most importantly, cultivate healthy provider partnerships.

What are some of the ways Discovery is helping health plans address their payment integrity challenges?

This past year has been an exciting time of innovation and growth for Discovery. We have an expanded suite of payment integrity solutions—Coordination of Benefits, Subrogation, Data Mining, Clinical Audits (in areas such as diagnosis-related group (DRG) audits and itemized bill review audits) and Premium Restoration. Our integrated solutions are designed to work together. This connected approach helps optimize claims recoveries and avoid future expenses across the entire claim lifecycle while reducing provider and member abrasion.

What makes Discovery unique is that our solutions start with our clients’ own data and processes. We leverage the latest analytical tools and technology like machine learning to identify patterns that present opportunities for cost recovery and cost savings. By blending artificial intelligence with human expertise, we identify hidden errors and root causes that are often overlooked. We also provide the highest levels of support to our clients, acting as an extension of their teams, to free up their internal resources so they can focus on other business priorities.

Since its inception, Discovery has been proud to provide flexible solutions that help health plans solve their payment integrity challenges. Our newly formed Client Council provides a platform for clients to share industry insights and challenges with their peers and help drive product innovations with Discovery. Going forward, custom-tailored solutions like ours will be key to helping plans manage costs while maintaining the high levels of care that their members expect.

What’s on the horizon for Discovery in 2020?

During the past decade, we’ve demonstrated measurable success by helping our clients improve operational efficiencies, increase claims accuracy and payment, and recover dollars back to their health plans.

From 2020 forward, we will continue to evolve existing solutions and create new forward-thinking approaches to help plans prevent and recover inaccurate payments. By expanding our use of data analytics and data integration and accelerating our investments in research and technology like machine learning and predictive analytics, we will help health plans capitalize on information to coordinate claims correctly. Once individual plans reach the point where they are paying the appropriate amount for the healthcare that’s delivered, they can re-invest in clinical care for their members.

At the same time, we will position clients to transition toward a more proactive approach to cost management. Reimagining the payments process and applying insights further upstream will be key to enabling providers to take advantage of opportunities to proactively change wasteful behaviors.

And of course, we’ll continue to keep our finger on the pulse of the industry. By building partnerships with our clients, industry organizations, agencies and others to learn about best practices and stay on top of the latest trends, we can prepare clients for the challenges ahead.

Find out how Discovery Health Partners can help strengthen your payment integrity initiatives in 2020. Contact us today!

Three ways to tackle the high cost of waste

December 5, 2019 Discovery Health Partners Blog Post

New research published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) estimates that 25% of U.S. healthcare spending, or $760 billion to $935 billion, is spent annually on waste¹. According to the study, the greatest source of waste is administrative complexity, which accounts for $265.6 billion in annual waste.

Part of this administrative burden stems from a complex claims adjudication process impacted by legacy or outdated technology, a lack of clear contract or policy information, and no universal way for sharing information (e.g., member’s name, diagnosis code, etc.). These administrative challenges results in data and eligibility errors that are made throughout the claims continuum, resulting in millions of dollars in improper payments.

Life of a claim: Errors along the way

Despite the best efforts to address waste, administrative complexity in the healthcare system continues. Recent research from JAMA shows that measures to eliminate waste would result in a 25% improvement, but there’s more work to be done. Finding the root causes of errors is the most effective way to ultimately remove waste—and the high cost of it—from health plans’ payment integrity operations.

Here are three approaches to combatting the high cost of waste in your payment integrity strategy.

1. Reduce manual processes

Manual processes are often at the heart of human error. Manual processes are tedious, error-prone, and inefficient, contributing to the high cost of waste in healthcare. When your entire claims adjudication or payment integrity process contains manual tasks, the likelihood of error is high. Reducing or eliminating manual effort in your payment integrity processes will go a long way toward reducing waste.

2. Use technology to your advantage

Technology plays a key role in taking out waste from the payment integrity process. But outdated or legacy technology can create just as much waste as you might find with manual processes. With the right technology in place, you can modernize your payment integrity processes and reduce the amount of time and effort associated with correcting complex claims.

By the same token, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning solve traditional payment integrity problems in new and innovative ways. These technologies offer analytics and predictive insights that can optimize your claims payment processes and drive data-driven decisions.

3. Look to a partner for advanced capabilities

A partner can supplement your in-house operations and offer the expertise you need to reduce waste. The right partner will bring robust capabilities that round out your core operations—capabilities like data mining techniques that prevent incorrect and unnecessary payments; industry experts who are up on the ever-changing and complex healthcare landscape; and processes that identify opportunities to correct, recover, and prevent improper payments at all points in the claims’ lifecycle.

The high cost of waste can threaten the viability of organizations throughout the healthcare ecosystem. With a holistic, connected payment integrity strategy built around these three tenets, your organization can improve operational efficiencies and achieve financial integrity by preventing improper payments—all while eliminating waste and generating meaningful results.

To learn how Discovery Health Partners can help you advance into the future of payment integrity, contact us today.

¹“Waste in the US Health Care System: Estimate Costs and Potential for Savings,” JAMA, October 7, 2019.

Three ways to modernize your COB approach

November 5, 2019 Ron Jones Blog Post

When health plans think of Coordination of Benefits (COB), the hassles of managing spreadsheets, letters, and phone calls come to mind. These painstaking manual and error-prone methods for identifying other insurance, validating coverage status, and recovering incorrectly paid claims can negatively affect your internal efficiencies, your provider and member relationships, and ultimately, your bottom line.

According to new research, waste accounts for about 25% of U.S. healthcare spending or $760 billion to $935 billion per year –with administrative complexity cited as the greatest source of waste.¹ In addition, as many as 15% of all health plan members may hold other insurance coverage.² Compounding these challenges are continual changes in membership, such as an aging workforce that is eligible for both employer plans and Medicare, and outdated claims processing environments that are ill-equipped to support growing and siloed data.

The convergence of these trends calls for a modern approach to managing your COB program. In today’s competitive marketplace, plans must have the right people, processes, and technology in place to effectively integrate data sources, look at member eligibility holistically, and determine the most successful indicators or combination of indicators of other coverage.

Here are three ways you can improve your COB program and cut down time, money, and paper:

#1: Increase recoveries with technology

There is great manual effort in traditional approaches to COB. Typical COB efforts involve tedious, time-consuming research and member questionnaires and calls—all of which are often ineffective and create member dissatisfaction. New technologies, such as machine learning, predictive analytics, and rules-based analytics, help identify members who have other forms of insurance and other factors that might mitigate inaccurate payments.

#2: Improve cost avoidance

One of the most important keys to success in the modern approach to COB is avoiding inaccurate payments in the first place. Proactive approaches to COB leverage sophisticated data integration, data mining, and data analytics. With technologies that quickly and accurately identify claims that are not the plan’s responsibility, a health plan can resolve claims before paying a dime.

#3: Focus on member and provider satisfaction

Traditional approaches to COB put members and providers in the middle, causing abrasion and dissatisfaction. The modern approach to COB requires that plans and their vendors look to new ways to get the information they need while communicating with providers and members on their terms. This may include using a combination of traditional communication channels, as well as member portals and automation to exchange information in more productive, cost-effective ways.

Core elements of a successful COB program begin with data sources, driven by sophisticated machine learning algorithms to create leads, and matching capabilities which all stand on the foundation of human talent. Without the right team, the technology does not yield the same results.

Discovery’s COB program encompasses all these components and offers both cost avoidance and post-payment, delivering considerable incremental recovery opportunities with minimal disruption to operations. Our COB program uses machine learning-based data mining and modeling to:

Identify additional instances of other insurance coverage
Validate coverage status
Recover any claims paid in error without any disruption to existing claims adjudication processes or existing internal COB validation and recovery efforts

1 JAMA, “Waste in the US Health Care System: Estimated Costs and potential for Savings,” October 7, 2019

2 Discovery Health Partners’ experience.

eBook: The modern guide to COB

November 5, 2019 Discovery Health Partners eBook

eBook: The modern guide to COB

Manual and error-prone Coordination of Benefits processes contribute to millions of dollars in annual waste

Save time, resources, and paper with advanced technologies that can help you transition from cost recovery to cost avoidance.

Download our eBook and see how a modern COB approach can help you:

Increase recoveries
Improve cost avoidance
Reduce administrative costs
Achieve greater member and provider satisfaction

Related resources

Award-winning Irena Trajkovski’s superpower is her team

Displaying accountability in her work, Irena Trajkovski, senior technical project manager at Discovery, is a winner of this quarter’s Accountability in Action award.

Your COB questions answered

As we meet with health plans across the country, we get asked about the COB process, vendor selection, and working with internal COB teams. We share some common questions and answers.

Protecting payment integrity through client-centered support

Discovery discusses how our client-centric approach to account management helps protect payment integrity.

eBook: Restoring millions for your Medicare Advantage plan

The Medicare Advantage landscape is complex and requires the right people, processes, and technology to ensure accurate premium payments. Learn how which actionable steps your plan can take to capture underpaid premiums.

Infographic: Fixing payment integrity at the source

Are eligibility errors impacting your payment integrity approach? Find out the top three causes of eligibility errors and what they might be costing your plan.

Fixing payment integrity at the source

Find out how eligibility management plays a role in maximizing recovery opportunities, improving cost avoidance strategies, and creating premium restoration possibilities.

Jason Brown on the road ahead for payment integrity

Health plans face increasing pressure to ensure payment integrity. Discovery CEO Jason Brown explains recent trends and how they’re shaping the new decade.

Three ways to tackle the high cost of waste

Administrative complexity continues to drive the high level of waste in healthcare. Learn how to reduce improper payments with an optimized payment integrity approach that blends advanced analytics with human expertise.

Three ways to modernize your COB approach

Traditional COB processes are manual and error-prone. Learn how new technologies can help your plan transition from cost recovery to cost avoidance.

eBook: The modern guide to COB

The number of health plan members that have other health insurance keeps increasing. Are your methods for verifying eligibility and insurance information keeping up? Learn how to modernize your COB efforts and transition from recoveries to cost avoidance.

View all

“The accountability program changed the perspective of project management,” said Irena. “It empowers everyone, regardless of their role, to know that they can make an impact. If they see something, they can take the initiative to do something.”

If you’d like to learn more about the steps to accountability and building this kind of culture at your organization, we recommend the book The Oz Principle.

Why consider Discovery Health Partners’ COB solution?

Does our organization need to change our existing COB processes?

How is Discovery’s COB solution different from internal operations or external vendors?

What does Discovery’s COB process look like?

Does line of business matter?

What should our organization look for when evaluating COB vendors?

You’re a newer member of the Discovery Account Management Team. Can you share your experience prior to Discovery?

What makes Discovery a successful team and what are we doing differently to support our clients’ success?

What is Discovery’s approach to account management, and how do we drive value throughout the entire engagement with a client?

What are some of the ways Discovery helps health plans address unexpected payment integrity challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic?

eBook: Restoring millions for your Medicare Advantage plan

Correctly paid Medicare Advantage premiums are a critical source of revenue for many health plans

Related resources

The impact of eligibility errors

Identify inaccurate eligibility data

Determine a cost-avoidance strategy

Look beyond dollars and cents

Consider a connected payment integrity approach

1Gartner, “U.S. Healthcare Payer CIOs Must Adopt Prospective Payment Integrity to Thwart Improper Claims Payment and Fraud,” February 13, 2018.

Healthcare continues to change and evolve. What do you see as some of the trends setting the stage for optimizing payment integrity?

What are some of the ways Discovery is helping health plans address their payment integrity challenges?

What’s on the horizon for Discovery in 2020?

Life of a claim: Errors along the way

1. Reduce manual processes

2. Use technology to your advantage

3. Look to a partner for advanced capabilities

1“Waste in the US Health Care System: Estimate Costs and Potential for Savings,” JAMA, October 7, 2019.

#1: Increase recoveries with technology

#2: Improve cost avoidance

#3: Focus on member and provider satisfaction

1 JAMA, “Waste in the US Health Care System: Estimated Costs and potential for Savings,” October 7, 2019

2 Discovery Health Partners’ experience.

eBook: The modern guide to COB

Manual and error-prone Coordination of Benefits processes contribute to millions of dollars in annual waste

Related resources

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¹Gartner, “U.S. Healthcare Payer CIOs Must Adopt Prospective Payment Integrity to Thwart Improper Claims Payment and Fraud,” February 13, 2018.

¹“Waste in the US Health Care System: Estimate Costs and Potential for Savings,” JAMA, October 7, 2019.