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Prior authorizations remain one of the most complex and time-consuming administrative processes in the healthcare industry. Inefficient processes can aggravate provider abrasion and delay patient care, leading to increased costs and decreased member satisfaction. Transitioning to automated prior authorizations can give health plans the opportunity to streamline administrative workflows, facilitate care delivery, and improve provider relationships.

This article explores the challenges of traditional prior authorization methods, the benefits of automation, and how health plans can implement solutions that not only meet compliance requirements but enable strategic growth.

The Challenge of Prior Authorizations

Prior authorization is the process by which a provider requests approval from a health plan for specific healthcare services to ensure they are covered and qualify for payment.  Although essential for care coordination and cost control, the prior authorization process has traditionally been a source of inefficiency and frustration across the healthcare system.

Why Are Prior Authorizations an Industry Pain Point?

For providers, conducting manual prior authorizations via phone, fax, or email can detract from their focus on patient care and cause significant administrative burden. Some of these challenges include:

• Time-consuming Work: On average, providers and staff spend 24 minutes per prior authorization request when using phone, fax, or email according to the 2024 CAQH Index Report. For those working through health plan portals, each prior authorization takes 16 minutes per transaction. Multiply this by hundreds of requests weekly, and it’s clear how much time this process takes away from patient engagement.
• Care Delays: Lengthy approval processes can take days or even weeks, leaving patients waiting for critical treatments or tests. This delay can lead to poorer health outcomes and member dissatisfaction, as well as more costly care in the future.
• Provider Frustration: Complex plan requirements, inconsistent data availability, and low adoption of automated systems can further complicate the prior authorization process, diverting attention from patient care and contributing to provider abrasion.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recognized the negative impacts of inefficient prior authorization processes and issued the Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule (CMS-0057) in January 2024. Among its requirements are the adoption of HL7 FHIR-based APIs to support real-time data sharing of prior authorization requests between providers and health plans and faster approval timelines, with deadlines approaching for compliance in 2027.

Why Should Payers Automate Prior Authorizations?

Automating prior authorizations benefits all stakeholders in healthcare. For health plans, it simplifies workflows, supports compliance, and generates significant cost savings. It also alleviates the administrative burdens on providers and opens the door to better patient outcomes.

Tangible Cost and Time Savings

The financial impacts of automation are clear. According to the 2024 CAQH Index Report, each manual prior authorization costs approximately $5.28 per transaction, but automation slashes that cost down to $0.07 per transaction. This translates to a savings of more than 98% per transaction—a game-changing improvement when scaled across hundreds of thousands of transactions per year.

For providers, automation saves an average of 14 minutes per transaction, allowing staff to focus more on patients instead of navigating bureaucratic hurdles.

Improving Care Delivery

Automation doesn’t just improve efficiency—it plays a critical role in care delivery. Reducing delays in approvals allows patients to access treatments faster, leading to better clinical outcomes. With fewer administrative bottlenecks, providers can deliver the timely care patients need without additional frustration.

What Capabilities Do Health Plans Need to Address Inefficient Prior Authorizations?

To improve prior authorization processes, health plans must look beyond the basics of CMS compliance. Proactively implementing automated solutions can help improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and strengthen provider relationships. Payers should look for scalable solutions that offer:

• High Data Capacity: Payers need tools capable of ingesting and sorting high volumes of dynamic business data involved in prior authorizations.
• User-Friendly Workflows: To ensure the system is always up-to-date, health plan administrators should be able to easily input files and have the solution quickly process these changes.
• Flexibility for Diverse Business Needs: Payers need the ability to create multiple decision-making entities to tailor solutions by business line or operational need.

Prior Authorization Catalog from HealthEdge®

Automation involves intelligent technology and rules-based engines that streamline the complexity of prior authorization decision-making.

The Prior Authorization Catalog from HealthEdge is an advanced rule processing engine that automates prior authorization decisions. It is a scalable solution that is designed to handle high volumes of data, enabling payers to support complex decision automation. The tool simplifies workflows for health plan administrators, allowing them to drop a file with updates and have the tool automatically process the changes. Prior Authorization Catalog also supports organizational growth as payers can maintain multiple catalogs for different lines of business or environments.

For organizations that leverage several solutions to manage prior authorization decisions, Prior Authorization Catalog can triage and route incoming authorization requests to the appropriate system for processing.

Automated Prior Authorizations for “Gold Card” Providers

There are many ways health plans can leverage Prior Authorization Catalog and one of the top use cases is Provider Gold Carding. With the Prior Authorization Catalog, a Gold Card provider can submit a prior authorization for a specific service group. The catalog automatically processes the prior authorization based on predefined rules from the payer.

From there, the Prior Authorization Payer Catalog automatically approves, pends, or indicates if authorization is not required based on the member, service group, and provider gold carding combination. This automated decision-making is possible because Prior Authorization Catalog can process significant amounts of data, representing all possible combinations of provider NPIs, CPT codes, date ranges, and more.

What’s Next for Health Plans?

The healthcare industry continues to evolve. Automated digital solutions give payers unprecedented opportunities to reduce administrative costs, optimize workflows, and improve patient experiences. By leveraging integrated tools like Prior Authorization Catalog, health plans can position themselves as industry pacesetters, delivering efficient and effective processes that align with the needs of patients, providers, and policymakers.

With ongoing regulatory changes and the growing demand for streamlined care delivery, now is the time for payers to act. Explore how your health plan can best leverage Prior Authorization Catalog. Contact HealthEdge Professional Services today.

Medicaid is a lifeline for millions of vulnerable citizens, providing essential healthcare services. However, traditional Medicaid programs often require innovation and flexibility to meet the evolving needs of vulnerable populations. Enter 1115 Medicaid waivers—state-driven initiatives that allow for experimental, pilot, or demonstration projects aimed at:

• Improving care delivery
• Enhancing cost efficiency
• Addressing social determinants of health (SDOH)

For health plans participating in these waiver programs, success hinges on their ability to coordinate care, ensure compliance, manage social services, and track outcomes effectively. This is where GuidingCare®, the care management and population health platform from HealthEdge®, comes in.

By streamlining workflows, removing data silos across systems, and facilitating care team member engagement, GuidingCare helps health plans navigate the complexities of 1115 waivers while optimizing care for Medicaid beneficiaries.

What Are Medicaid 1115 Waivers?

Section 1115 of the Social Security Act grants states the authority to implement innovative programs that deviate from standard Medicaid rules. These waivers allow states to test new care delivery models, improve efficiency, and better serve populations experiencing greater health disparities. Some common focus areas of 1115 waivers include:

• Expansion of Medicaid coverage to populations not traditionally covered
• Integration of behavioral health and physical health services
• Addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), such as housing, food insecurity, and employment support
• Value-based payment and alternative payment models (APMs)
• Improving maternal and infant health outcomes
• Reentry services for justice-involved individuals

Widespread State Participation in 1115 Waiver Programs

As of January 2025, nearly all states have at least one active Section 1115 waiver, with some states operating multiple waivers simultaneously. These waivers enable states to test innovative approaches in Medicaid, addressing diverse areas such as behavioral health integration, social determinants of health, and care transitions for individuals reentering the community from incarceration.

For instance, 26 states and the District of Columbia have pursued reentry waivers to improve continuity of care for individuals exiting correctional facilities. This widespread adoption underscores the critical role of Section 1115 waivers in enhancing Medicaid programs across the United States.

Additionally, several states have reported measurable successes in their 1115 waiver programs:

• California’s Whole Person Care (WPC) Program reduced inpatient admissions and emergency department visits among high-risk populations, while improving housing stability for Medicaid members experiencing homelessness.
• Illinois extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months, resulting in increased postpartum care visits, reduced maternal complications, and expanded mental health support.
• Alaska’s behavioral health waiver helped increase access to mental health and substance use disorder treatments, reducing crisis hospitalizations and improving long-term recovery outcomes.

Because these programs vary significantly across states, participating health plans must adapt to unique regulations, reporting requirements, and care models—a challenge that requires agile and scalable technology solutions.

5 Ways GuidingCare Enables Your Waiver Program Success

GuidingCare is designed to support the complex requirements of Medicaid Managed Care, making it an ideal platform for health plans engaged in 1115 waiver initiatives. Below are 5 key ways GuidingCare helps health plans succeed.

1. Comprehensive Care Management & Coordination

1115 waivers often prioritize whole-person care, integrating medical, behavioral, and social services. GuidingCare provides comprehensive care management solutions to help plans:

• Deliver the right care at the right time through a comprehensive, integrated member centric platform, with one record for holistic care of the member and one single solution for care management, utilization management, appeals & grievances, and more
• Identify populations with complex care needs through predictive analytics
• Coordinate multidisciplinary care teams, including physicians, behavioral health specialists, and community-based organizations (CBOs)
• Create and track individualized care plans tailored to specific waiver requirements
• Ensure seamless transitions of care to reduce hospital readmissions

2. SDOH Integration

Many 1115 waiver programs emphasize non-medical drivers of health, such as housing, transportation, and nutrition. GuidingCare supports SDOH initiatives by:

• Embedding SDOH assessments into care workflows
• Tracking member needs and referral status for services like food assistance, housing support, and job training
• Integrating with community-based organizations (CBOs) for closed-loop referrals and follow-ups
• Generating reports on social needs trends to support program evaluation and regulatory compliance

Automated Workflows & Compliance Support

Each 1115 waiver program has its own unique compliance requirements, including mandatory reporting, member tracking, and quality benchmarks. GuidingCare automates these processes by:

• Configuring workflows to match state-specific requirements
• Automating documentation to track waiver-related interventions and services
• Providing real-time dashboards to monitor program performance
• Facilitating regulatory audits by maintaining comprehensive care records

These automation capabilities reduce administrative burden, enhance accuracy, and ensure timely compliance reporting.

Real-Time Data & Interoperability

Data integration is critical for health plans participating in 1115 waiver programs. Many initiatives require real-time data sharing across Medicaid agencies, healthcare providers, and community organizations. GuidingCare supports interoperability by:

• Integrating with state Medicaid systems, health information exchanges (HIEs), and electronic health records (EHRs)
• Enabling real-time data exchange to track member services and outcomes
• Providing robust analytics and predictive modeling to assess program effectiveness
• Ensuring compliance with federal and state interoperability mandates

By breaking down data silos, GuidingCare enables holistic, data-driven decision-making that improves care quality and cost efficiency.

Member Engagement and Self-Service Tools

Many 1115 waiver programs emphasize patient-centered care and engagement strategies to empower Medicaid members. GuidingCare and the Wellframe solution from HealthEdge work together to enhance member engagement through:

• Multichannel, multimodal communication for the entire care team (text, email, chat, and phone outreach) via web, mobile app, and more
• Secure member portals for care plan access, appointment scheduling, and progress tracking
• Personalized health education resources tailored to individual needs
• Automated reminders for preventive care, wellness visits, and screenings

By promoting member activation and adherence, health plans can improve health outcomes and program effectiveness.

Learn more about how GuidingCare can support your Medicaid initiatives by contacting the HealthEdge GuidingCare team today.

Health plans today face multifaceted challenges, particularly when managing care for individuals navigating significant barriers to health equity. These populations, including dual-eligible special needs (DSNP) and pediatric populations, present unique complexities that require innovative care management strategies and advanced technology to support care managers effectively.

The GuidingCare® care management solution from HealthEdge® has been helping health plans innovate their approaches to address these challenges, ensuring equitable and effective care delivery. This blog examines 8 ways GuidingCare enables care management teams to better serve individuals with diverse and complex care needs. But first, let’s be sure we understand these populations.

Understanding Communities with Complex Challenges: Characteristics and Unique Needs

Communities facing systemic barriers in healthcare include individuals who are dual-eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid (DSNP) and children under the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) program. These individuals often face challenges such as socio-economic inequities, significant medical needs, and intricate regulatory requirements. They are also disproportionately affected by chronic conditions and limited access to supportive resources.

For the DSNP community, seamless coordination between Medicare and Medicaid services is essential. This dual coordination adds a layer of complexity, requiring care managers to navigate different regulatory environments and service provisions. Quality and continuity of care remain priorities, as DSNP members frequently encounter barriers to preventive care, follow-up services, and necessary testing. Limited health literacy and socio-economic challenges exacerbate these issues, further complicating care delivery.

Children engaged in EPSDT programs often come from families facing financial and social hardships. Barriers such as limited healthcare access, transportation issues, and resource shortages impede their ability to receive preventive services. Ensuring these children benefit from consistent care is fundamental to achieving the long-term developmental and health goals of the EPSDT program.

Top 8 Ways GuidingCare Empowers Care Managers to Address Diverse Needs

The GuidingCare solution from HealthEdge provides comprehensive care management solutions tailored to the needs of individuals experiencing disparities in healthcare access and outcomes. These solutions are designed to enhance coordination, improve quality of care, and address the unique challenges these groups face.

Here are the top 8 ways GuidingCare equips care managers:

1. Integrated Care Coordination: GuidingCare facilitates seamless coordination between Medicare and Medicaid services for DSNP members and ensures timely screenings and follow-ups for children in the EPSDT program. This integration ensures that all members can receive comprehensive care that addresses their medical and social needs.
2. Enhanced Data Management: The platform allows care managers to capture and analyze detailed data on members. This data-driven approach helps identify gaps in care, track progress, and tailor interventions to meet individual needs, improving outcomes for both DSNP and EPSDT populations.
3. Compliance and Regulatory Support: GuidingCare streamlines compliance with changing regulations, ensuring that care activities consistently meet required standards. This capability is essential for navigating the complex regulatory frameworks associated with DSNP and EPSDT programs.
4. Quality Improvement Initiatives: The platform supports quality improvement initiatives by providing performance measurement and management tools. Health plans can use these tools to monitor and enhance the quality of care delivered to individuals navigating health inequities.
5. Population Health Management: GuidingCare includes features for managing population health, allowing care managers to identify and address broad needs across diverse populations. This approach ensures that interventions are both effective and equitable.
6. Member Engagement Tools: The platform offers tools to engage members actively in their care. These tools include educational resources, communication channels, and personalized care plans designed to improve member engagement and health outcomes.
7. Community Resource Integration: GuidingCare connects individuals with essential community services such as transportation, financial aid, and nutrition programs. Bridging access to these resources helps mitigate the social determinants of health (SDOH) that disproportionately affect DSNP members and EPSDT children.
8. Advanced Care Planning: By prioritizing personalized care planning, GuidingCare ensures members receive care that honors their preferences and addresses their unique health scenarios. This approach is particularly crucial for individuals managing chronic conditions or multifaceted health challenges.

Driving Innovation for Equitable Care Delivery

As health plans continue to navigate the complexities of care management, digital solutions like GuidingCare will become increasingly important. Future advancements in technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, can further enhance the capabilities of care management platforms.

For example, AI-powered predictive analytics can help care managers identify members at risk of adverse health events, allowing for proactive interventions. Machine learning algorithms can analyze large datasets to uncover patterns and insights that inform care strategies and improve outcomes. By integrating these advanced technologies into the GuidingCare platform, HealthEdge can continue supporting health plans as they strive to deliver high-quality, efficient, and equitable care to members.

An equally essential aspect lies in integrating community resources and addressing social determinants of health directly within care platforms. By connecting members to critical support services, health plans can foster equitable care while reducing barriers that hinder healthcare access and outcomes.

Building a Healthier Future for All Members

Through features like integrated care coordination, enhanced data management, compliance support, quality improvement initiatives, population health management, member engagement tools, community resource integration, and advanced care planning, GuidingCare empowers health plans to deliver optimal care to people facing systemic health disparities.

By leveraging these capabilities, health plans can create meaningful improvements in health outcomes, reduce inequities, and provide equitable access to healthcare and community resources.

The GuidingCare team at HealthEdge remains committed to reshaping the care management landscape with technology that supports more efficient, equitable care delivery. To learn more about how GuidingCare can drive efficiency and care delivery, visit our case study, “Medica Partners With HealthEdge To Improve Member Lives In The Moments That Matter.”

Modernizing technology solutions and adjusting digital strategies are key priorities for health plan executives. Advancements in integrated care management solutions are enabling payers to streamline organizational workflows—allowing them to centralize member engagement and improve clinical outcomes. This blog explores the key role care management plays in empowering payers, providers, and members.

What is Care Management?

Care management is a whole-person approach to healthcare delivery that focuses on enhancing care coordination to increase member engagement and improve clinical outcomes. Generally, care management includes activities and interventions like remote monitoring, health education, and biometrics tracking, which help providers stay up-to-date on developments in patient health.

By reducing the need for unnecessary medical interventions and hospitalizations, care management not only improves quality of life for patients but also helps cut down healthcare costs.

5 Benefits of Care Management for Health Plans

1. Enhanced Patient Outcomes

Care management programs are designed to provide tailored care plans specific to individual patient needs. This personalization achieves measurable outcomes:

• Reducing hospital readmissions
• Improving adherence to prescribed medications
• Ensuring timely follow-ups and preventive care

A study published in the American Journal of Managed Care revealed care management initiatives reduced medical costs by 37% and inpatient admissions by 44% for Medicaid populations. Effective care management also fosters trust and engagement with members, empowering them to take ownership of their health.

2. Cost Reduction

Effective care management makes it easier for providers to identify and address member health needs before they worsen, helping prevent more complex and costly medical interventions. By streamlining care processes and improving care coordination, health plans can significantly reduce operational costs. This is particularly important for government-funded programs like Medicaid and dual-eligible populations where cost containment is crucial.

3. Regulatory Compliance

Navigating the complex regulatory landscape can be challenging for health plans. Integrated care management systems like GuidingCare® offer robust compliance management features that help organizations stay up to date with new requirements and maintain regulatory compliance with state and federal guidelines.

4. Enhanced Member Satisfaction

A modern and integrated care management program can improve member engagement and satisfaction by giving providers the tools and insights they need to provide timely and personalized care. This not only improves patient outcomes but also builds member trust, leading to greater satisfaction and higher retention rates.

5. Data-Driven Decision Making

Increasingly, care management solutions include analytics and business intelligence that provide near-real-time insights that enable more confident decision-making. With access to updated data, health plans are better able to identify trends across member populations, measure program performance, and allocate resources effectively.

Leverage Care Management Across Payer Organizations

Implementing an advanced care management solution can help with more than improving member engagement and health education.

Customer Service  

Using advanced care management solutions, health plans can enhance customer interactions with tools like chatbots and virtual assistants. This allows administrators to focus on complex cases while members use self-service resources for routine inquiries about benefits and coverage, improving response times and member satisfaction.

Provider Collaboration  

A modern care management system streamlines interactions between health plans and providers. By offering real-time insights into member benefits and prior authorizations, solutions like GuidingCare can improve provider relationships and enable higher-quality patient care.

High-Quality Care Delivery

Analyzing trends across member populations allows health plans to address community health challenges proactively. Population health modules within care management solutions pinpoint at-risk members that need additional support, helping ensure timely interventions. For example, the Pediatric Population Health module within GuidingCare helps health plans comply with Medicaid Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPDST) requirements and improve health access for children.

Member Marketing   

Targeted marketing campaigns can be personalized to engage specific member populations more effectively with access to deeper and more timely member information. Solutions like GuidingCare include AI-powered analytics that deliver insights health plans can use to design engaging, personalized outreach campaigns.

Compliance Management  

Advanced platforms support adherence to shifting regulatory requirements and streamline reporting processes. With built-in auditing features and flexible reporting options, health plans can stay ahead of compliance challenges and avoid costly penalties.

Advanced Digital Tools Make the Difference 

Selecting the right care management platform isn’t just about meeting today’s needs—it’s about preparing for the future. Effective care management is a strategic imperative for health plans aiming to improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and stay competitive.  Advanced solutions like GuidingCare support an integrated technology ecosystem and help payers deliver personalized, coordinated care that meets the needs of their most vulnerable populations.

Ready to transform your care management strategy? Learn more about how GuidingCare can empower your health plan to drive superior outcomes in a value-based, patient-centric ecosystem.

What does it take to pay a claim correctly? In healthcare, “editing claims” goes beyond surface-level checks—it’s about ensuring accuracy, compliance, and efficiency. Each claim must align with provider contracts, state and federal regulations, and demonstrate medical necessity. The challenge for many health plans lies in navigating the diverse payment policies while minimizing delays or rework. Payment integrity is about maintaining this intricate balance.

Payment accuracy, operational efficiency, and cost management are critical priorities for health plans navigating an increasingly complex claims landscape. Errors in claims processing can disrupt operational workflows, increase expenses, and damage relationships with healthcare providers.

In the recent webinar, “Path to Payment Integrity: Enhance Payment Accuracy with HealthEdge Source™ Editing,” our experts shared actionable ways payers can address common challenges to claims accuracy. This blog will explore 5 of the key obstacles health plans face during claims processing and how the HealthEdge Source Editing tool helps contribute to cost savings by enhancing accuracy and efficiency.

5 Challenges Health Plans Face in Claims Management

The claims payment process often involves multiple, disparate technologies. Juggling multiple vendors and point solutions can lead to workflow inefficiencies and increased operating costs. If claims management feels overwhelming, you’re not alone. These are 5 of the most common challenges payers face.

1. Regulatory Complexity

Keeping up with constant updates from the  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), state Medicaid programs, and other federal agencies requires meticulous oversight and prompt action. Health plans often struggle to keep up with the pace of change, leading to non-compliance risks and operational disruption.

2. Too Many Vendors

Health plans rely on a fragmented approach with multiple vendors managing separate parts of post-pay processes. This “stacked vendor” system can lead to inefficiencies, delayed guideline updates, varying data accuracy, and higher administrative costs.

3. Rising Administrative Costs

On average, each medical claim carries a financial cost of $12 to $19. Complex manual processes and workflow inefficiencies in claim processing can significantly increase these administrative costs. Reliance on manual claims processing also causes issues for health systems, costing an average of $5 million in losses per year and increasing provider abrasion.

4. Limited Internal Claims Editing Capabilities

Many health plans lack effective in-house tools to align claims editing and pricing systems. Relying on disparate third-party claims editing systems can create mismatches between pricing, policies, and regulations—leading to denials and rework.

5. Provider Abrasion

Delays, rework, and reimbursement issues damage provider trust in your health plan, making an already complex system even harder to manage.

Payment Integrity Insights from Payers

During the webinar, participants were surveyed about the top challenges and priorities at their health plans.

Top Challenges in Claims Payment Accuracy

“Increasing regulatory complexity” emerged as a primary concern for payers, followed closely by a “lack of in-house claims editing capabilities.” These findings highlight that staying compliant while managing cost and operational efficiency remains a delicate balance.

Primary Drivers for Improving Payment Integrity

Many payers identified “reducing overall costs” and “optimizing operations for efficiency” as the main drivers for modernizing payment integrity efforts. These priorities go hand-in-hand as health plans strive to streamline workflows and eliminate wasteful spending.

Most Helpful Tools for Claims Accuracy

Participants emphasized the need for “real-time performance metrics” and “stronger system integrations” as critical enablers for success. Streamlined insights and a cohesive ecosystem are essential for navigating the complexities of payment integrity.

Benefits of HealthEdge Source Editing

Real-Time Claims Accuracy

With HealthEdge Source Editing, claims processing is automated to streamline operations and reduce the need for manual review. Automating processes helps cut down on expensive claims rework and reduces provider abrasion due to delays.

HealthEdge Source combines editing, pricing, and analytics into one integrated system, catching errors and flagging inconsistencies in real-time. This proactive approach uncovers the root causes behind recurring payment issues. With these insights, health plans can fine-tune their processes, implement corrective strategies, and address systemic inefficiencies, all while maintaining a clear focus on cost containment and operational excellence.

Regulatory Compliance Made Easy

HealthEdge Source simplifies compliance for your team through automatic cloud-based, regulatory updates, eliminating the burden on your internal teams. With constantly updated code edits, automated claims auditing, and detailed audit trails, staying compliant has never been easier.

The platform is fully customizable for state and payer-specific requirements, giving your health plan the flexibility to adapt to shifting guidelines. By automating compliance checks, HealthEdge Source can help minimize penalties, save time, and enhance accuracy—letting you focus on your members.

Seamless Integration

Our solution seamlessly integrates with existing claims systems, third-party tools[DN1] , and pricers to enhance capabilities without costly disruptions. Third-party integrations make it easier for payers to streamline data flow, eliminate silos, and enable real-time validation, ensuring accurate claims processing and payment calculations upfront. Leveraging third-party tools also helps improve fraud detection and data enrichment. The result is a cohesive ecosystem that allows your health plan to deliver both financial and operational excellence without compromise. 

Increased Customization and Control

HealthEdge Source Editing allows your health plan to tailor rules and configurations to match unique provider contracts, policies, and regulatory requirements. This flexibility improves accuracy while helping payers adapt to evolving business needs.

Actionable Business Intelligence

The HealthEdge Source platform provides transparent insights into claims performance through a unified interface. The modeling tool allows health plan teams to test and refine new edits before implementation, reducing errors and ensuring alignment with business goals. And advanced analytics highlight trends and potential challenges, enabling health plans to make data-driven decisions and proactively adapt to emerging demands.

Efficiency and Cost Savings

By streamlining payment integrity operations, HealthEdge Source Editing helps payers reduce administrative costs and save time. This allows internal teams to focus on strategic initiatives, rather than repeatedly fighting the same fires.

HealthEdge Source Editing provides a comprehensive solution that combines real-time accuracy, seamless integration, regulatory adaptability, and actionable insights, enabling your organization to streamline processes, reduce costs, and build stronger relationships with providers.

Watch the video to see how your health plan can leverage HealthEdge Source Editing.

Ready to learn more about HealthEdge Source? Explore what the solution can do for your health plan by visiting our resources page for additional tools, insights, and expert guidance. Empower your organization to deliver excellence in payment integrity today.

 

Optimizing healthcare technology solutions is no longer just a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic move that can drive significant improvements in efficiency and cost saving. From reducing operational costs to improving member and provider experiences, well-executed technology optimization can deliver measurable benefits across your organization.

But how do you unlock the full potential of your digital solutions? Where do you even start?

The first—and most crucial—step is an optimization assessment. Designed to evaluate your current system setup and workflows, an optimization assessment identifies opportunities for improvement in your workflows and technology use, helping ensure your business maximizes the value of its technology solutions.

This blog will address common questions about optimization assessments and provide guidance for health plans considering technology optimization initiatives.

What Is an Optimization Assessment?

An optimization assessment is a detailed evaluation of your digital solutions, such as Core Administrative Processing Systems (CAPS) and Care Management. With the help of expert teams, an optimization assessment identifies potential pain points and recommends best practices to maximize your technology investment.

Key outcomes include enhanced system performance, more streamlined workflows, and empowered end users who understand how to best leverage the tools available to them.

But how exactly does this benefit your organization?

How Can My Health Plan Benefit from an Optimization Assessment?

Optimization assessments aren’t just about fixing what’s broken—they focus on empowering health plans to better leverage the solutions they already have to achieve their strategic goals. Here are three ways these assessments can create value for health plans like yours:

1. Increase Operational Productivity

By conducting a deep analysis of your current workflows and system setups, optimization assessments help identify inefficiencies that may be slowing your team down. Perhaps processing times are lagging, or manual workarounds have crept into daily operations. Through customized recommendations, experts can help your team work more efficiently, reduce manual input, and improve overall productivity.

2. Leverage New Functionality and Updates

Technology evolves rapidly—especially in the ever-shifting healthcare industry. With each new product release, features and capabilities are updated to keep your organization on the cutting edge. An optimization assessment ensures that your organization continues to get the most value out of its HealthEdge solution as it grows and evolves.

3. Empower End Users with Training

Your system is only as effective as the individuals who use it every day. A key component of optimization assessments involves engaging directly with end users, addressing process gaps, answering their workflow questions, and providing targeted training. The result? A more confident, knowledgeable workforce that can leverage your technology more effectively.

What Types of Optimization Assessments Does HealthEdge® Offer?

HealthEdge offers two key types of optimization assessments tailored to address your specific organizational needs. Whether you require laser-focused insights on a particular challenge or a broad system evaluation, there’s an assessment type designed for you.

Targeted Assessments

Targeted assessments are designed to investigate and solve specific issues within your systems, such as:

• Addressing low auto-adjudication rates
• Streamlining care coordination
• Improving the end-user experience

The findings and recommendations you’ll receive focus entirely on resolving the identified issue, outlining actionable steps that can be implemented quickly for measurable improvements.

Comprehensive Assessments

Comprehensive assessments take a holistic approach by evaluating your entire HealthEdge solution, including configurations, workflows, and user processes.

Many customers choose to conduct a comprehensive assessment three to six months after implementing a new HealthEdge solution. Why? It provides an opportunity for payers to make usage adjustments, refine workflows, and focus on additional training as part of the broader optimization process. Optimization assessments can also serve as a vital step in preparation for new strategic initiatives, like expanding into different markets or serving new member populations.

3 Steps of the GuidingCare® Optimization Assessment

When it comes to GuidingCare, the care management solution from HealthEdge, optimization assessments follow a structured three-step process for maximum impact.

Leadership Alignment Meeting: We start by meeting with your leadership team to align on key goals, identify specific areas of improvement, and establish expectations for the assessment.

End-User Group Sessions: Next, we engage directly with your end-user groups—such as care management, utilization management, medical directors, and others. These sessions involve day-to-day process observations and workflow evaluations, identifying opportunities for optimization and training.

Recommendations and Follow-Up: A detailed report outlines the findings discovered during the assessment, with actionable next steps to address gaps and enable improvements. Then we coordinate a leadership session to review the insights and assist your organization to formulate an action plan and ensure alignment moving forward.

[H3] 5 Steps of the HealthRules® Payer Optimization Assessment

For HealthRules Payer, optimization assessments use a five-step methodology designed to uncover inefficiencies and improve outcomes more broadly across the organization.

Preparatory Meeting: We work with your health plan’s leadership to define the business problem and set expectations with project sponsors and stakeholders.

Project Startup: Using information from the initial meeting, we determine the scope of the assessment and align stakeholders on deliverables through a structured work plan.

Workflow Assessment: At this stage, we interview subject matter experts, collect and review system and workflow data, and evaluate configurations and resource inputs impacting performance.

Operational Analysis: Our team conducts a SWOT analysis to identify gaps, pain points, and configuration improvement opportunities.

Health Plan Recommendations: The final report provides key findings and recommended action items. We review the benefits and impact of suggested improvements and outline clear next steps.

How Can Your Health Plan Get the Most Value Out of an Optimization Assessment?

To get the most out of your optimization assessment, preparation and transparency are key.

For GuidingCare Assessments

• Opt for On-Site Assessments: Whenever possible, conduct assessments on-site. This allows for direct observations of user workflows and tools for a richer understanding of challenges and potential improvements. For remote assessments, your health plan may have to make additional preparations.
• Pre-Visit Preparation: Collaborate with HealthEdge to collect necessary data, align department representatives, and coordinate schedules beforehand to ensure a smooth process.

For HealthRules Payer Assessments

• Define Clear Outcomes: Our team will work with your leadership to define the scope of the engagement, assess and evaluate your current systems and workflows, diagnose any problems or issues, and deliver a report of key findings and recommendations.
• Focus on Transparency: Provide full and accurate data on pain points, KPIs, and areas for ROI estimates to better enable HealthEdge to effectively diagnose issues and deliver impactful recommendations.

Move from Optimization to Transformation

An optimization assessment isn’t just about improving the technical side of your system—it’s an opportunity to align your technology and processes with your broader business goals. By streamlining workflows, empowering end users, and keeping your organization ahead of technology trends, optimization assessments unlock both immediate and long-term benefits.

Still on the fence? HealthEdge’s proven track record includes transforming inefficient workflows, enabling features that reduce operational costs, and boosting overall system performance for health plans just like yours. By leveraging an optimization assessment tailored to your needs, you’ll not only maximize your existing technology investment but also set the stage for sustainable growth.

To learn more or schedule your assessment, contact your HealthEdge customer success executive today. The sooner you begin, the sooner your health plan will reap the benefits of streamlined operations and improved outcomes.