May 17, 2008, 5:20 AM

 

C.O.M.B.A.T. Structure

Steering Committee

Advisory Board

Subcommittees

Secretariat

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C.O.M.B.A.T.

Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture & Technology

Background:

Following our Tour, MBProject announced a new initiative at the 2005 National Medical Banking Institute to implement an open standards-based reference architecture, linking open source components that have been successfully tested and deployed in other industries. This platform, envisioned in 2001 when MBProject initially launched its portfolio of ideas for a new "medical banking" industry segment, culminates four years of policy research and plans for an industry architecture, and is based on broad industry input from banking and healthcare stakeholders and many others.

We are cooperating with industry standards groups in this effort as opposed to creating new standards. New technology profiles that support real time processing will emerge from this effort. Thus MBProject is sponsoring the creation of a new type of open source standard (and new components) called "mbXML" for "medical banking extensible mark-up language". As this body of work is confirmed by the open source community, MBProject will make the appropriate announcements.

C.O.M.B.A.T. will focus MBProject workgroups and we hope, general industry efforts towards the necessary development of cross-industry business models. One of the initial use cases is targeted towards linking the "community safety net" with traditional healthcare settings (proving out a component of the Charitable Communities Network model - see industry vision). We will also test out certain aspects of lockbox specialization (promoting speedier adoption of the 835), bank-driven Personal Healthcare Records and real time administrative processing (settling a healthcare claim in real time).

The C.O.M.B.A.T. Initiative has been reviewed by some of the nation's largest employers and we have successfully pulled together leading advisory organizations with national and global experience in areas where we require subject matter expertise and technical input.

C.O.M.B.A.T. Mission:
To combat the rising costs of healthcare using medical banking principles and technology.

Objectives:

To implement a royalty-free, real-time administrative and clinical transactions testing architecture:


  1. The technology will illustrate real time administrative transaction processing in healthcare.
  2. The plan will fully embrace HIPAA and other policy requirements for the authorized exchange of medical records among banks, healthcare providers and consumers.
  3. The testing platform will be tested in 3 or more Proof-of-Concepts.
  4. After the testing phase, MBProject will host the platform for research and trading partner certification.

Governance:

  Steering Committee -- comprised of Chairperson and Workgroup Leaders

  Advisory Board (by stakeholder type):

Healthcare Providers:  American Hospital Association, Solutions (AHA)

Banks:  The National Clearing House (NCHA)

Consumers:  National Health Council (NHC); Consumers for Healthcare Choices (CHCChoices); Family Voices; National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) at The Urban Institute

Healthcare IT:  Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS); Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE); Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC)

Employers:  Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)

Standards Development Org (SDO): National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP)

Government : Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI)

 

  Subcommittees -- tasked with architectural design & planning, programming and testing, education & awareness

  Secretariat -- to organize all meetings, distribute and archive minutes and ensure workgroups meet objectives

Press:

C.O.M.B.A.T. was formally launched at our 2005 Medical Banking Leadership Forum on July 8, 2005 (hosted by the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health). The session offers the nation's most advanced medical banking learning forum and is open exclusively to MBProject members and special guests. Press releases to date are as follows:



C.O.M.B.A.T. Situation Rooms & MBWiki

Members are encouraged to post their comments in our discussion boards (currently in transition to a better discussion board and listserv utility) . We invite the comments of observers as well. Our MBWiki, which coordinates member contributions to the C.O.M.B.A.T. Initiative, is located in our membership portal.

C.O.M.B.A.T. Forms:

Milestones:

   10/04 - 1/05: Use-case presentations to General Motors (MBProject Focus Group)

   10/05: Ratification of C.O.M.B.A.T. Advisory Board

    7/05: Formal launch at Medical Banking Leadership Forum

    2/05: Initial presentation at Institute (John Hardin, former Chief Architect of eBusiness, General Motors)

Open Source Healthcare Programs/Projects:

MBProject routinely receives inquiries from efforts around the globe about our work. From this activity we created a list in our "MBWiki" of open source healthcare projects. The C.O.M.B.A.T. platform is designed to be "agnostic" towards the EHR or PHR used, with the exception that a viable program should use a product that is certified by CCHIT (http://www.cchit.org/). We expect more open source healthcare products to receive this certification over time.

* NOTE: MBProject and/or its COMBAT Initiative does not endorse (or imply endorsement of) any of the products listed, nor have we done due diligence on these products to determine fitness for use in the C.O.M.B.A.T. architecture.

To Join:

If you would like to join the C.O.M.B.A.T. Initiative take a few moments now to become a member of MBProject. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at 615-794-2009.

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