Availity multi-payer provider portal brings advantages to providers

In the September Record, we announced that we’re moving to the Availity provider portal in 2021. The Availity provider portal will bring many improvements to your online experience. We’re going to focus on different aspects of this transition through a series of articles in this publication and BCN Provider News over the next year.

This month, we’re focusing on the benefits of a multi-payer website.

What is a multi-payer website?

With a multi-payer provider portal like Availity, you log in to one website where you can find information for any health plan that uses Availity. This means you only need to learn how to use one system to find information for members associated with multiple health plans. In 2021, in Michigan, Availity will have member information for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Care Network, Aetna^® and Humana^®.

What are the advantages of the Availity multi-payer website?

• Single login and password — You’ll have fewer logins and passwords to juggle as your Availity login and password will work for multiple payers.

• Register only once — You only need to register for Availity once. When you have an Availity account in Michigan, you’ll have immediate access to view other Michigan payers who join the Availity provider portal. If you’re already an Availity user, you don’t need to do anything to access Blue Cross and BCN information once it’s available. If you’re not currently an Availity user, watch future issues of this newsletter for registration information.

• Handle patient coverage tasks using one tool — With Availity, you can check eligibility and benefits or the status of a claim for patients with coverage from multiple health plans without logging in to different systems.

• Save time with Express Entry — Availity allows you to set up specific providers you work with in the system so you can click on them from a drop-down menu and have information automatically populate. This means you don’t have to retype data, such as NPI numbers or provider names.

• Easy to use for administrators — Providers select an administrator who handles Availity access for other users within the office, practice or facility. Adding a user or changing user access is simple with just a few keystrokes by your administrator. Availity also makes user administration easy, with training, forums and reports to help manage user access.

• Learn once and use for many — As noted earlier, once you learn how to use Availity for one health plan payer, you’ll know how it works for other payers since Availity’s tools have similar functionality across all participating Availity health plans.

• Locate specific health plan communications quickly — Availity offers a Payer Space for each participating health plan. So if you have a question about a specific plan, you can easily click on the Payer Space for that health plan and find the plan’s resource materials, news, announcements and tools that are unique to that health plan. Availity also has a keyword search that helps you find what you need. Blue Cross and BCN will have a Payer Space site within Availity in 2021.

• Availity’s focus is the provider portal — Availity’s expertise is in building and managing a provider portal with tools that are easy and useful to health care providers. They continually seek provider feedback to improve their website for all users.

Watch for more information about Blue Cross and BCN’s move to the Availity provider portal in future issues of this newsletter.