Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange


WEDI, pronounced "wee dee", is a not-for-profit user group in the United States for users of Electronic Data Interchange in public and private healthcare. The organization is sometimes referred to by other names that include some or all of the words: Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange.
By: Hipaasuite
It was established to provide leadership and guidance to the healthcare industry on how to use and leverage its collective knowledge, expertise and information resources to improve the quality, affordability and availability of healthcare, via forums, conferences and online resources, especially in matters of conformance to EDI standards required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA which was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996.
WEDI has regional affiliates in 27 US States and the Virgin Islands.

History

In November 1991, the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange was established in response to the challenge from the Bush administration, specifically, Louis Sullivan MD, Secretary of HHS, to reduce administrative costs in the nation's health care system by up to 10%.
Joseph Brophy, President of Travelers Insurance Company, and Bernard Tresnowski, President of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, agreed to establish and lead a voluntary, public-private task force, named WEDI, to develop an action plan to streamline health care administration by standardizing electronic communications across the health care and health insurance industry.

Initial task force

The initial task force included members from the following organizations:
In July 1992, WEDI published a report that outlined the steps necessary to make electronic data interchange a routine business practice for the health care industry by 1996. The Workgroup envisioned the entire health care industry transacting business electronically, under a nationwide set of coding and format standards for all transactions. The transaction records would be transmitted electronically, in a secure manner to protect privacy, over private and public interconnecting networks like the internet and intranet. In the year following the publication of the WEDI report, the health care industry made substantial gains with EDI implementation:
WEDI reconvened in 1993 to resolve remaining implementation obstacles and to:
WEDI expanded its financial analysis to encompass eleven health care transactions. Newly available data were added to estimate the potential savings for providers and to update the estimated savings for payors and employers. Additionally, the cost of implementing EDI was added to achieve a more comprehensive picture of EDI's financial impact on the health care industry.
WEDI's 1993 financial analyses concludes that combining the estimated implementation costs and the gross administrative savings potential, the cumulative net savings over the next six years is estimated to total over $42 billion.
Although the estimated net savings may not translate directly to hard dollar savings for the nation's health care system, EDI savings will allow health care enterprises to reallocate resources from administrative activities to enhance quality, patient care, and customer service.
To achieve this large cost savings, WEDI's eleven Technical Advisory Groups developed the following major recommendations. These recommendations are summarized below according to the Technical Advisory Group that developed the recommendation:
The leadership and guidance provided by WEDI to the healthcare industry on how to use and leverage its collective knowledge, expertise and information resources to improve the quality, affordability and availability of healthcare, via forums, conferences and online resources, especially in matters of conformance to EDI standards required by the Health Care Financing Administration, now known as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services led to the development of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act which was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996.

Leadership

WEDI is currently led by Charles Stellar, the third CEO of the organization. Prior, Dr. Devin A. Jopp served as President & CEO from 2011 to 2015. Under Dr. Jopp's leadership, on the 20th anniversary of the original WEDI Report, an updated report entitled the "2013 WEDI Report" was released as a roadmap for the next generation of healthcare information exchange. Jim Schuping served as the organization's first CEO from 1996 to 2011.