What health care could learn about information sharing from banks and retail stores

Medical Economics April 17, 2024
Richard Payerchin

Economist discusses potential cost savings and fewer administrative burdens if U.S. health care had an automated clearinghouse.

American banking and retail sales have two large-scale processes that could serve as models for a new, standardized way to share information about patients and their health care.

U.S. banks have an automated clearinghouse that standardizes financial transactions to transfer money across the street or across the nation. Different stores sell identical products in packaging that bears Universal Product Codes, the black lines that make it faster to track inventory and scan items at cash registers. Those examples show it is possible for competing companies to share information in a way that benefits the business and the customer.

Technology exists to create a...

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