Wake Forest Baptist Information Specialist to Receive National Award

October 27, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Betsy Clore, an information systems analyst/programmer with Wake Forest University Physicians, will receive an Award of Merit from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a national consortium within the health care industry dedicated to reducing administrative costs through the implementation of electronic data interchange.

The award recognizes individuals who have contributed in a meaningful way to the success of WEDI and related programs through their volunteer commitment and talents. The award will be announced formally during the WEDI annual member meeting in November.

“Betsy Clore is a nationally known, pioneering innovator in the use of data interchange to streamline the business side of health care,” said Robin Meter, vice president of Wake Forest University Health Sciences and executive director of WFU Physicians (WFUP). “We are extremely fortunate to have her at our Medical Center.”

Clore led the WFUP Information System projects to implement the original HIPAA electronic data interchange administrative transactions and the National Provider Identifier. Currently she is preparing for the upgrade to the next version of EDI transactions that will be adopted under HIPAA.

Working with WEDI, Clore has represented the North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance Inc. (NCHICA), a group that Wake Forest Baptist helped to found. On behalf of NCHICA, Clore serves on a joint WEDI-NCHICA steering committee to establish an electronic timeline that organizes proposed health care standards, regulations and technology solutions announced by federal agencies and national standards organizations.

“Betsy has a unique ability to understand how complex computer programs work and how they fit into the ‘big picture,’” said Murray Sink, director of information systems for WFUP. “Through her participation with NCHICA, WEDI, and X12 (a standard for EDI), her expertise and knowledge of computerized billing systems has significantly benefited those organizations as well as our own Medical Center. She has a wonderful ability to negotiate changes to national health care EDI regulations that are beneficial and practical for health care organizations and insurance payers alike.”

WEDI’s mission is to provide leadership and guidance to the health care industry on how to use and leverage the industry’s collective knowledge, expertise and information resources to improve the quality, affordability and availability of health care.

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EDITORS: Click here to download a photo of Clore.

Media Contacts:
Mark Wright, WFUBMC, mwright@wfubmc.edu, (336) 716-3382
James A. Schuping, WEDI, jschuping@wedi.org, (703) 391-2716

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