Countdown to the Uniform Coverage Summaries Compliance Deadline – Are You Ready?

By Connie Harvey, executive vice president and group president, Healthcare Payer and Insurance, ACS, A Xerox Company

 

Hear that sound? It’s the ticking of the clock – and a bit of nail-biting – as we inch closer to March 23, 2012, “D-Day” for Uniform Coverage Summaries (UCS) compliance. Payers around the country are working quickly to meet the numerous reform deadlines looming over the next few years. While many are closely following the Health Insurance Exchange discussions or thinking about integration into a statewide Health Information Exchange, UCS compliance may be flying under the radar. With the potential to drive significant administrative expense at a whopping $1,000 per failure, per enrollee fine, it’s not a deadline to take lightly.

 

As outlined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, all group health plans, health insurers and self-insured plans must provide policy holders, applicants and enrollees with a standardized summary of benefits. The goal is to provide a snapshot of health care benefits to consumers so they can easily see and understand the benefits being offered by their insurance company, and compare with plans offered by other payers. This is good news to most consumers, as according to a recent survey sponsored by Xerox, 55 percent of consumers think their insurance provider should make benefits information easier to understand.

 

So what’s a payer to do? One way to ensure compliance is to partner with a company that can quickly:

By working with a partner to manage the details for UCS compliance, payers can stay focused on delivering simple, relevant communications to members to help them make informed decisions about their health care. Meanwhile, it provides an opportunity to use the information collected about customers to connect with members the way they want to be reached. For example, Medco Health Solutions, is allowing people to choose how and when they want to receive and respond to their health care information – through traditional mail, a secure website, email or text message alerts.

 

Personalizing communications – and delivery channels – is the most effective way for health care providers and insurers to show customers they understand individual circumstances.

 

If you’re well on your way to meeting UCS compliance, bravo! But if this post served as a jarring reminder that there’s so much to do and so little time to do it in, fear not – there are many resources available to help you meet this requirement in a timely fashion that’s sure to spare your fingernails.

 

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