A few years ago, Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente realized its growing list of health plan options had created an unintended problem.
The average health insurance contract grew 40 percent from 2006 to 2008, and a single Kaiser health plan contract could be as long as 2,000 pages.
According to a case study submitted by Kaiser to Practice Greenhealth, officials decided to put all of its contract information online instead of printing it on paper. The goals were twofold: to reduce the environmental impact and to cut down on printing and mailing costs.
During 2008, Kaiser converted all health plan documents to electronic forms. Since then, the health system has evaluated the overall impact:
• $500,000 in annual savings due to eliminated printing and mailing services
• A reduction of more than 16 million pieces of paper every year
Kaiser officials said the project showed important initiatives can be carried out in only a few months, with the help of senior leadership, and the system continues to move toward an increasingly paperless environment for its customers and patients.
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