Savannah’s Buddy Claborn, founder and CEO of Healthpac, has accepted an invitation to serve on the board of directors of the Healthcare Administrative Technology Association (HATA) and will be on the front lines of the efforts to reduce the cost of healthcare in the United States through greater administrative efficiencies. 

The accreditation guidelines and requirements are currently being developed through a partnership between the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) and the Electronic Data Interchange with the goal of forming a universal benchmark across the industry to establish a level of trust for medical practices and other healthcare providers who have the overwhelming task of choosing practice management systems vendors. Claborn’s Savannah-based company, Healthpac, has been invited to be a beta-tester for the certification process being created, and Claborn has also been asked to serve on the advisory board for EHNAC. 

“Hopefully, I will be able to have an influence on the creation of the certification standards, particularly for specialty products in specific medical fields, as well as help define what it will mean to be certified,” said Claborn, who has previously been honored as the National Healthcare Billing Software vendor of the year by the Healthcare Billing and Management Association. “What these organizations are working on is the next phase in the evolution of the medical billing software industry and practice management systems industry, and the end product will help healthcare providers make intelligent decisions to best meet their needs. The accreditation process will protect the medical industry from fly-by-night companies and vendors with inferior products, and those efficiencies will be reflected in the way patients throughout the country are billed for medical services.” 

HATA is a recently launched not-for-profit organization dedicated to representing the practice management systems industry that includes more than 600 providers offering a variety of technology solutions to healthcare professionals and practices. Claborn has been a pioneer in the medical billing software community since founding Healthpac in 1981 and currently provides comprehensive medical billing and practice management solutions and support services to medical professionals, practices and partners throughout the United States. 

In addition to acting as a resource and advocate for its membership, one of the primary functions of HATA will be to introduce a certification process for medical billing software providers that will protect medical practices from fraud and inferior medical billing products. The practice management systems industry represents nearly 100% of all initial claims submitted on behalf of hospitals, physicians and allied health professionals, and the accreditation system will create benchmarks to measure a vendor’s ability to provide the essential tools to optimize workflow and streamline efficiency, seamlessly integrate with electronic health record systems as well as enhance revenue cycle management and reporting. 

Founded in 1993, EHNAC is an independent, federally recognized, standards development organization and non-profit accrediting body designed to improve transactional quality, operational efficiency and data security in healthcare. HATA is recognized as the practice management systems industry's professional not-for-profit trade association and is uniquely positioned to be a major influence on any accreditation process and program. 

“Formal representation of such an important piece of the healthcare ecosystem is critical to the advancement of the industry,” said HATA executive director Tim McMullen. “HATA is a key stakeholder in the $40 billion physician revenue cycle industry and will be an active and influential voice promoting the goals and values within the health administrative industry as well as driving administrative efficiencies. Administrative simplification of claims processing is a key factor in influencing the cost of healthcare in the United States, and HATA will lead the movement in this area.” 

Go to www.hata-assn.org to learn more about the Healthcare Administrative Technology Association or www.healthpac.net to learn more about Buddy Claborn and Healthpac.