title: A decision technology system for health care electronic commerce.
abstract: Mounting costs have escalated the pressure on health care providers and payers to improve decision making and control expenses. Transactions to form the needed decision data will routinely flow, often electronically, between the affected parties. Conventional health care information systems facilitate flow, process transactions, and generate useful decision information. Typically, such support is offered through a series of stand-alone systems that lose much useful decision knowledge and wisdom during health care electronic commerce (e-commerce). Integrating the stand-alone functions can enhance the quality and efficiency of the segmented support, create synergistic effects, and augment decision-making performance and value for both providers and payers. This article presents an information system that can provide complete and integrated support for e-commerce-based health care decision making. The article describes health care e-commerce, presents the system, examines the system's potential use and benefits, and draws implications for health care management and practice.
authors.affiliation: Information Systems Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Catonsville, USA.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Forgionne
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gangopadhyay
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Eckhardt
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003660:Decision Support Systems, Management; D019981:Health Care Sector / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D007344:Insurance Claim Reporting; D018511:Systems Integration; D014481:United States