Private medical insurance (PMI) claims are on course for another record year and may break the £5bn barrier in 2024, a rise of more than 11%, according to Healthcode.
Data from Healthcode which handles invoice clearing services for much of the private healthcare system also projects insurer invoices will hit 11 million this year, up by 7.8% from 10.2 million invoices worth around £4.5bn in 2023.
Figures shared exclusively with Health & Protection show monthly claim volumes up to and including October have been equal to or higher than all of the same 10 months last year.
The rise is so significant that in seven of the 10 months available it is at least 10% higher with April being 28% higher and July 21% higher than the reciprocal months in 2023.
In terms of value, up to October only one month had dropped below £400m worth of treatment – the summer month of August. In contrast only three months in the whole of 2023 broke the £400m threshold.
Million monthly invoices
Healthcode managing director Peter Connor (pictured) revealed the latest figures noting the growth in invoicing services had been “incredible” and was now touching one million a month.
“We’re very much presenting ourselves as a product organisation,” Connor said.
“The one you have all known us for historically has been the clearing and invoice processing services. The growth in that area has been incredible.
“For three months this year, we have processed over one million invoices.
“When I joined Healthcode we thought that there were only four million invoices in all of private healthcare, now we’re doing a million a month.
“And the value of those has exceeded £4.5bn and we’re getting close to £5bn this year.
“So there’s an incredible amount of throughput there.”
Business intelligence tool
Connor also revealed a number of key product updates which will include Sentinus, a new business intelligence tool.
“There was a time at Healthcode where I struggled to get the brand new technology we have there, it took us a while to get to those levels,” Connor said.
“This is absolutely brand new. It’s on Microsoft Fabric and it will allow all of our customers to get real insight into their businesses and into the market they operate in for the first time.”
Connor added that the private healthcare sector has seen more change than ever before and Healthcode has had to reinvent itself against this change.
Practice management system update
But Connor added that the firm’s practice management system has also added new features.
“We’ve built a new appointment system,” he said.
“We’ve got a prescribing system that’s about to hit the market. We’ve built labs integration. We’ve built electronic records and a clinical pathways builder.
“We’ve done all that and it’s about to go live and it’s about to hit the market and we’ve done it with customers.
“A big part of our future is going to be the practice management and electronic health records side.”
Consultant specialist profiles
The updates have also extended to the firm’s private practice register.
“Those of you who work on the clinical side will have seen there’s a brand new consultant specialist profile,” Connor said. “That is now live.
“It took us a while to get there with that but now that we’ve got there it gives us a platform to do more and more and produce full clinical governance for the private sector and that’s where we’re going with that.”
These four columns sit alongside ICE, the firm’s global distribution system for healthcare.
“It’s the backend system that you see in hospitality and airlines sectors and we have built a healthcare one,” Connor said.
“We have managed to create all these achievements this year.”