Title: What is Electronic Data Interchange in Healthcare?
Headings: What is Electronic Data Interchange in Healthcare?
What is Electronic Data Interchange in Healthcare?
How EDI in healthcare works
Benefits of EDI in Healthcare
Standardization
Cost savings
Security
Improved productivity
Faster processing
Data-centric healthcare EDI
Looking Ahead

Content: It was instrumental for the enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Before HIPAA, the healthcare industry was using over 400 medical forms in various formats, most of which were paper based. Because healthcare data management was highly manual and ad hoc, protecting and securing healthcare information was a major concern. For example, in the US, “ privacy regulation consisted of a series of differing, industry-specific laws .” The Center for Democracy and Technology described the pre-HIPAA period as total absence of national health privacy law, federal limits on healthcare information processing, and federal right allowing patients to access their health care information. The enactment of HIPAA was intended to address these gaps. Healthcare data began to be transmitted in standard formats — primarily via the electronic data interchange (EDI) protocol X12 or EDI. Enabling HIPAA EDI transactions helped address security and compliance issues and fill other gaps such as information inaccuracy and patients’ lack of access to their healthcare information. Understanding electronic data interchange in healthcare – how it works, what are its benefits, and what are the key considerations for implementation – can help healthcare professionals and organizations fully capitalize on it. How EDI in healthcare works
Electronic data interchange in healthcare allows the exchange of computer-processable healthcare data in a standardized format and secure manner among healthcare professionals, healthcare institutions, and patients.