Administrative Tasks Made Easier With Digital Support

Contributing experts: Tich Changamire, MD, and Beth Weis

As part of doing business, care providers dedicate a significant amount of time to collecting and tracking health plan information about their patients.

Those tasks place an increased administrative burden on care provider practices — especially when they involve paper-based, manual interventions, or phone calls. Enhancing our existing digital capabilities and implementing new ones reduces and sometimes eliminates these tasks. With more digital service options, care providers are better able to deepen their focus on tending to patient needs and priorities.

For example, our subsidiaries Carelon medical benefits management and CarelonRx pharmacy benefit manager perform prior authorizations for outpatient services and medications using care provider-facing portals, featuring real-time approvals with care provider attestation. More than 90% of prior authorization requests were submitted via the Carelon Medical Benefits Manager in 2024.¹

Access to digital platforms, such as Availity, put timely and accurate information at our care provider partners’ fingertips. When care teams use Elevance Health’s self-service tools hosted on Availity instead of having to call the Commercial contact center, they save an average of 12 minutes of time on the phone per inquiry, and for Medicare Advantage and Medicaid contact center, the savings is an average of 10 minutes.^{2, 3}

When care providers can access critical information digitally and in real time, their patients benefit as well. For example, we’re expanding access to digital health plan ID cards, making interactions with care providers more efficient, and reducing concerns about losing physical identification cards. Our applications on Availity enable care providers to confirm service coverage instantly, speeding up care delivery, reducing unexpected coverage issues, and supporting improved patient experience.

The Key to Efficiency and Better Experiences