The UCF Regional Extension Center was featured along with the Central Florida RHIO in an article posted by the Orlando Business Journal.
Orlando Business Journal by Abraham Aboraya, Reporter
Date: Thursday, September 13, 2012, 11:43am EDT
“Samuel Click, an independent contractor and real estate agent with Coldwell Banker, got an unexpected bonus in July — a check from UnitedHealth Group Inc. for $796 for his individual health insurance policy.
Click got the check because the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or health reform, requires insurers spend 80 percent to 85 percent of the money they get from premiums on medical services.
The medical loss ratio, which took effect in 2011, resulted in insurers paying $1.1 billion worth of rebates to companies and individuals nationwide for 2011 premiums, which included 18 insurers paying $123.6 million worth of rebates in Florida.
“Who wouldn’t want the money?” said Nancy Schwalb, Click’s wife and owner of Schwalb Public Relations firm.
It’s proof positive that if something saves an insurer money, it also saves businesses money on their health insurance premiums. And nothing has more potential to save big dollars than health care technology innovations.
See below for four Central Florida health care technology innovations happening that can save you and your business money.
• RHIO bravo
The Central Florida Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) is a digital bridge between Florida Hospital and Orlando Health’s emergency departments that’s designed to reduce duplicated lab and radiology tests.
For example, in the last 12 months, Orlando Health, which has eight campuses and 2,067 beds, has seen more than 18,000 patients previously treated at Florida Hospital’s emergency departments; and Florida Hospital, which has seven campuses and 2,286 beds, saw 12,000 patients previously treated in Orlando Health’s emergency departments.
RHIO, founded in 2005, has more than 1 million patients’ information stored with 28 million documents, of which 88 percent are lab tests and radiology documents. And that helps doctors at Florida Hospital avoid ordering a repeat of tests already done on the same patients at Orlando Health, and vice versa.