Doctors quick to take up new medical service

Doctors quick to take up new world leading medical information service

AUCKLAND, 14 January 2010: A new New Zealand-developed service that radically saves doctors’ time in responding to insurer requests is being rapidly adopted, with more than 250 general practices signing on to use it in its first two months.

Developed by Auckland-based Konnect, the new service, SureMed, significantly cuts the time it takes GPs to respond to insurer information requests, with some doctors who have trialled the system recording time savings of well over 50%.

Confirming that SureMed has recently signed up its 250th practice, accounting for over 1200 doctors, Hamish McLachlan, Managing Director of Konnect, said he was delighted with the speed of uptake.

While insurance requests are currently paper based, SureMed automatically retrieves the relevant information from a doctor’s electronic Practice Management System (PMS) and then displays this for review by the doctor before it is returned to the insurer in a secure encrypted form.

“SureMed reflects a new approach to making a cumbersome process faster, easier and more secure for everyone. We are really pleased by how positively and quickly doctors and insurers have signed on to start using it,” Mr McLachlan said.

One of several GPs to trial SureMed, Dr Bevan Roy of the Ellerslie Medical Centre, said it had successfully rationalised a time-consuming task. “After you have done one or two you will be asking yourself why no-one has done it before,” he said.

Six major insurers, ING, Fidelity Life, AMP, AXA, Tower and AIA (collectively accounting for about 65% of the market), have signed up for SureMed. Milton Jennings, CEO of Fidelity Life, said it would significantly reduce the current three week average wait to turn around an application. “SureMed will create one of the most efficient systems in the world for processing applications and enormous efficiencies for GPs. Our clients will also benefit from a faster turnaround time from application to policy issue,” he said.

SureMed is one of several products Konnect has developed to make it easier for GPs to handle commercial transactions. Mr McLachlan said New Zealand has been an ideal test bed as general practices here have been leaders in using PMSs

The company plans to launch the service in Australia this year, where there is also a high proportion of doctors using PMSs.

ENDS

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