Chicago’s Initiate Systems offers new data management product for payers

CHICAGO, Illinois — Initiate Systems, a data management company, has released a new product that attempts to streamline claims processing.

Initiate’s strength is gathering data across multiple systems. The new Initiate Payer Data Management product hopes to cut administrative costs for insurance companies and other payers by gathering all patient information for every medical transaction. It will cut down on both data gathering and duplication, according to a company release.

Collecting all patient information in one place — including health-care providers, policies and other details — will also help payers as they interact with patients and make new products, the release stated.

“Consumers are becoming savvier about shopping for health-care plans,” stated Bill Conroy, Initiate’s president and chief executive officer. “Health-care payers are responding by using technology to drive costs out of the process, especially for activities that don’t contribute to customer service.”

The company’s health-care line was aided in October when BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Chicago-based Sandbox Industries fund invested $5 million in Initiate, according to the company. The BlueCross fund is a $116 corporate fund that invests in health-care IT, among other things.

Initiate had planned to go public but withdrew its IPO in the middle of last year because of poor market conditions. It raised $26 million in private financing about the same time it withdrew its IPO.