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NEWS RELEASE
CONTACTS:
NACHA
Michael Herd
mherd@nacha.org
Department of Veterans Affairs
Patrick Nelson
patrick.nelson@hq.med.va.gov
NACHA Honors U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for HIPAA-Compliant Electronic Payments System
Largest Healthcare Provider in U.S. Receives
2004 Kevin O’Brien ACH Quality Award
Seattle, Washington, March 22, 2004 — NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association has selected the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration, Chief Business Office as the recipient of the 2004 Kevin O’Brien ACH Quality Award. The VA is being recognized for its success in implementing a nationwide electronic health care remittance and payment processing system that complies with the electronic transaction standards of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA).
“This has been both a collaborative and innovative effort. The NACHA award underscores VA’s pioneering role in electronic payment transactions, and we are honored to be receiving it,” said Acting Chief Business Officer Kenneth Ruyle. At its PAYMENTS 2004 conference today, NACHA presented the award to Barbara C. Mayerick, Director of the Chief Business Office’s Business Development group, which developed and deployed the Electronic Payments System.
VA is the largest integrated health care provider in the United States. For veterans’ non-service-connected health care, VA submits approximately 10 million claims every year, and receives third-party payments from some 1,675 different insurers. Along with its partners at PNC Bank and the U.S. Treasury, VA developed the Electronic Payments (e-Payments) System to replace paper checks and remittances. When payers submit payments electronically, VA has shown reductions in the average time from submitting claims to receiving payment of 43 percent, from 49 days to 28 days. Automated data entry and report generation are providing greater speed and accuracy; automated matching of payments and Accounts Receivable (AR) is streamlining the closeout of AR and the preparation of deposits.
“This has been a flagship project for PNC Bank and VA, enabling us both to create an entirely new and efficient electronic business process for VA, incorporating use of the banking industry’s Automated Clearing House Network,” said J. Steven Stone, senior vice president and director of Product Management for the Treasury Management division of PNC Bank.
The Kevin O’Brien ACH Quality Award is presented annually to recognize best practices in ACH participants’ efforts to maintain and improve the quality of ACH services and the integrity and reliability of the ACH Network. The award is named for the late Kevin O’Brien, NACHA’s Chairman in 1999-2000. NACHA is also presenting Honorable Mentions to the 3M Company for its ePayment Solutions Program to convert its accounts payables from checks to ACH, and to JP Morgan Chase for its Zero Administrative Return process.
The ACH Network is a national electronic payments system used by the nation’s 20,000 financial institutions and an estimated 4.5 million businesses and 135 million Americans. ACH payments include Direct Deposit of payroll, Social Security benefits and tax refunds, Direct Payment of consumer bills, e-checks, business-to-business payments, and Federal tax payments. In 2003 there were more than 10 billion ACH payments made, worth $27.4 trillion.
The VA’s full case study is published in NACHA’s 2004 Electronic Payments Review and Buyers’ Guide, available on NACHA’s web site at
www.nacha.org.
About NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association
NACHA is the leading organization in developing electronic solutions to improve the payments system. NACHA represents more than 12,000 financial institutions through direct memberships and a network of regional payments associations, and 650 organizations through its industry councils. NACHA develops operating rules and business practices for the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network and for electronic payments in the areas of Internet commerce, electronic bill and invoice presentment and payment (EBPP, EIPP), e-checks, financial electronic data interchange (EDI), international payments, and electronic benefits transfer (EBT). Visit NACHA on the Internet at
www.nacha.org.
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