MediSwitch

MediSwitch focuses exclusively on switching medical transactions between the various players in the healthcare industry. Medical professionals benefit from improved cash-flow and reduced administration costs through various electronic transactions including batch and real-time claims processing and intelligent use of our business-driven technology.

The Switch Virtual Private Healthcare Network (VPHN) allows medical service providers to send medical aid patient and claim-related transactions electronically in batch and real-time to all leading medical scheme administrators in a safe, secure environment. MediSwitch guarantees delivery of all transactions and provide electronic responses and reports which allow medical service providers to track the status of their transactions.

The tried and tested services are used extensively by practitioners, pharmacies, laboratories and hospitals. MediSwitch currently process more than 5,8 million transactions a month from over 12,000 healthcare businesses.

What MediSwitch (SwitchOn) is and what it does

MediSwitch, now officially known as Altron HealthTech SwitchOn, is a claims switch: an electronic link between healthcare providers, such as doctors, pharmacies, laboratories and hospitals, and the medical scheme administrators who process their claims. It works through electronic data interchange (EDI), which is the computer-to-computer exchange of documents in electronic format. A claim captured in a practice management system is sent to SwitchOn, and SwitchOn passes it to the scheme administrator and returns the administrator’s response to the practice. SwitchOn is part of Altron HealthTech, a division of Altron that was formed in 2016 when MedeMass, MediSwitch and MedeServe combined their businesses.

A practice can submit claims in a batch, which groups the claims of several patients, or in real time, which sends the claim of one patient immediately. SwitchOn checks each claim against the rules of the patient’s medical scheme. A claim that passes this upfront validation is forwarded to the scheme administrator, and a claim that fails is returned to the practice with a rejection code so that it can be corrected and resubmitted. For real-time claims the scheme replies within seconds. SwitchOn also provides member status validation, which checks a patient’s scheme details, benefit checking, electronic remittance advices (eRAs), a daily action report on the status of claims, and WEBDesk, an online portal for viewing claims and the responses to them. Proof of submission is kept for 12 months.