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For a whole range of reasons, health industries globally have lagged other industries in the conversion from manual administration processes to electronic. However, in the past few years, there seems to be strong global focus among governments and private health sector participants alike towards improving this paper-based inefficiency in health. With THELMA, ICSGlobal is perfectly positioned in the right place, at the right time, with proven technology, to capitalise on this massive global shift towards eHealth that is underway.

Key Features of THELMA
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Frequently Asked Questions

Key Features of THELMA

Any-to-any real time interoperability for healthcare
Imagine connecting disparate health systems via the Internet so that administrative functions can be performed electronically in real time - at the click of a mouse. That's THELMA!

THELMA facilitates all types of electronic health transactions:

...which drives new eHealth ecosystems...
With remarkable ease, THELMA is being used in a wide range of situations, allowing healthcare organisations to effectively "outsource" their interoperability and meet federal obligations like HIPAA.

Enjoy the benefits of THELMA without affecting your existing investments in infrastructure. THELMA is very user-friendly, snapping onto your existing configuration and offering a wide choice of delivery options too - from POS to PC to wireless - so that adoption is maximised.

...and leverages the power of banks...
THELMA blends healthcare administration processes with banking infrastructure at all the appropriate points in the healthcare workflow cycle to maximise efficiency and minimise costs in providing and paying for healthcare.

...to provide you with an easy, cost-effective roadmap to efficiency in healthcare administration.

Frequently Asked Questions about THELMA

What is THELMA?

THELMA stands for Transactional Health Exchange Linking Multiple Applications. THELMA is a configurable "any-to-any" transaction exchange, the software for which is hosted in a secure central data centre. Customers access the THELMA software using the Internet, which gives them the ability to connect to all the different software systems used by their trading partners, so they can do business electronically. This is often referred to as "eHealth". The benefits to businesses using THELMA include drastic reduction in administrative time and cost; less paperwork; faster payment; better, faster information for health care providers and patients; reduced risk for providers of not being paid; and improved customer service.

What does "any-to-any" mean?

THELMA's "any-to-any" capability means that it can be configured to carry any type of transaction over the Internet, between any sender and receiver, in any format, between any two technology platforms, in the health system of any country. To do this, THELMA has a cluster of powerful translation engines into which the details are entered of how the sending party currently does business - ie data formats, technical standards, business rules, medical coding systems, etc. The same is done for the receiving party, then THELMA's translation engines are capable of doing whatever is necessary to enable the transaction from the sender to be "married" to the type of transaction that the receiver is expecting. In this way, THELMA prevents the sender and the receiver having to make significant changes to their technology systems or the way they currently do business. So THELMA customers can generally migrate from manual to electronic trading with their business partners with little or no capital expenditure, no IT project, and little if any change or disruption to their business.


What types of transactions can THELMA carry?

THELMA can be configured to carry any type of transaction. Though the names of the transactions may vary slightly between different health systems, there are basically two categories of eHealth transactions:

Financial transactions: Clinical transactions: How much work is involved when another country wants to use THELMA?

There's surprisingly little difference between implementing THELMA in one country or another. Health systems the world over are virtually identical in that they consist of patients, doctors and hospitals. The only material difference that affects how THELMA is implemented in a particular country is how the healthcare services are paid for - either by the government, by private health insurers, by the patients, or various combinations of the three. So the process for configuring THELMA to connect all the participants in the health system of another country is virtually the same; all that may vary is the content and format of the transactions, which again THELMA can be easily configured to handle. What may vary is how our international customers want THELMA to look and feel, which can also be easily catered for.

How do customers connect to the THELMA service?

In general, customers don't have to buy any new hardware or software provided they have a computer with a good connection to the Internet. How customers actually connect depends on which transaction they are using. For example, for eligibility checking, all they need to do is go to the THELMA web site (www.thelma.com.au), then use the password that we provide them with to log in and use the system. For other, more data intensive transactions such as electronic claims, THELMA is integrated to the Patient Administration System (PAS) that the particular healthcare provider uses so that claim data can be extracted and transmitted electronically, rather than someone having to type it in.

Do customers go live as soon as they sign up

Some can and do. It depends on things like the types of transactions they want to do, the state of their IT systems, and so on. Eligibility checking can go live immediately, as users simply require an Internet web browser. Electronic claiming is more involved. ICSGlobal's implementation team sits down with each new claims customer and examines the business, technical and cultural issues that the customer needs to address before going live. For example, whether the contract between the hospital and the health fund is set up for electronic trading; whether the hospital or health fund has the basic IT infrastructure necessary for electronic claims; how old the customer's business software systems are. ICSGlobal has come up with an innovative range of implementation solutions that allows customers to go live as soon as possible and derive benefits from the outset that they can improve upon over time to gain even further benefits.


What about Privacy and Security?

The level of privacy and security of data that THELMA provides is vastly superior to what is possible via the manual processes that the health industry has been operating under until now.

From a security point of view, THELMA uses the same level of security as Internet banking.

From a privacy perspective, ICSGlobal is experienced in conforming with the privacy requirements of various countries, which don't seem to vary very much. In short, privacy legislation is about ensuring that data is not used for any purpose other than that for which it was originally intended, without the owner's consent. The privacy principles to which THELMA and its customers agree to operate under are written into our THELMA User Agreements, and before any party can send or receive data via THELMA, they must sign this User Agreement and in doing so commit to these privacy principles.

What is THELMA's Business Model?

A good analogy for THELMA's business model is the telephone, where users pay a transaction fee each time they use the service, plus a nominal line or equipment rental fee. As with the telephone model, there's a wide range of THELMA transaction fees depending on the volume and complexity of the transaction.

What is THELMA's technology platform?

THELMA is a proprietary solution, built, owned and operated by ICSGlobal. THELMA was built using the latest Internet application development technologies such as Java and XML on a J2EE platform. It is hosted on a Unix-based Sun/Solaris platform, providing a secure, high-availability, high-capacity, industrial strength service. Both the hardware and software have been designed to scale to accommodate any volume demands.

How can ICSGlobal service a global customer base from the Sydney office?

Our international expansion strategy is to locate a local business partner in each country through which THELMA can be licensed to service the local health industry. In this way ICSGlobal does not need to have a physical presence in each country to gain rapid access to a global customer base with virtually no risk, capital expenditure or marketing spend. ICSGlobal's criteria for selecting local partners include knowledge of and contacts throughout the local health system; sufficient depth of technology expertise that they can translate the wants and needs of local customers into functional specifications that direct ICSGlobal to tailor THELMA; and sufficient local corporate presence and resources to enable them to perform the basic "customer facing" functions including sales & marketing, implementation, training, help desk and operations support. In this way ICSGlobal does not need to have a physical presence in each country.

The fact that THELMA is Internet-based is a key driver of our global strategy. Customers anywhere in the world can use an Internet web browser to access the THELMA technology which is hosted in Sydney. However, for a range of reasons, THELMA's infrastructure is expected to ultimately comprise a global network of interconnected THELMA "hubs", like the current one in Sydney, positioned in some of the major health systems or regions around the world. Each international THELMA customer will tap into the hub nearest them. This interconnected network will provide the capacity, security and reliability necessary for a global eHealth system.


Where's the benefit in THELMA for Health Insurers and other healthcare payers?

With transactions such as real time electronic claims and patient co-payments, THELMA provides health payers with a cost-effective front-line defence against the paper war that the health industries have evolved into. Checking a patient's insurance eligibility status using THELMA prevents payers from having to respond to a phone call or fax from the provider. For claims, THELMA collects them electronically from a large community of health care providers who typically use a huge range of disparate software systems, validates them against each payers business rules, then delivers them to each payer in a format compatible with their particular software system and claim assessing rules. And unlike paper claims, electronic claims can't get lost, and they can be traced and tracked right through the payment process.

Where's the benefit in THELMA for Doctors?

The challenge of getting paid for private healthcare is generally quite complex for doctors, particularly specialist doctors. THELMA provides significant benefit to doctors: easier to prepare and submit claims through THELMA, and get paid faster. Then there's a range of other useful real time services for doctors, like eligibility checking, patient co-payments, authorisations and referrals, diagnostic requests and results; discharge summaries from the hospital informing the doctor of about the patient's treatment. These services combine to save time, money and provide a much better patient experience.

Where's the benefit in THELMA for Hospitals?

Hospitals are probably affected even more by the health paper war than the health insurers, for it is at the hospital that all this paper work has to be generated in the first place. In Australia, industry data shows that just to produce a claim costs the hospital around $55, often spread over a few weeks after the patient has been discharged, which is bad for cash flow. THELMA automates the manual processes in the production of a hospital claim, for just a fraction of the cost of the manual process. But the main benefit of THELMA to a hospital is the fact that the claim is sent electronically to the health insurer, so they can't be lost, and get paid faster. When a hospital sends a paper claim to the insurer, they have no indication that the insurer has received it until the claim is not paid, in which case the claim often needs to be resent and the payment cycle starts all over again. This creates a huge accounts receivable problem for hospitals. In contrast, THELMA's electronic hospital claims cannot be lost; they are date stamped as soon as they arrive at the insurer, which marks the beginning of the payment cycle; the hospital and insurer can discuss and resolve any problems with the claim on-line; and when the amount is agreed, the hospital receives a Statement of Benefit from the insurer.

Is THELMA of interest to the public health system as well as the private?

This depends upon how health is paid for in a particular country. In Australia, the answer is certainly yes, as the public health system treats privately insured patients as well, so they need to know a patient's eligibility status and be able to submit hospital claims electronically to the private health insurers. The fact that there is no capital expenditure required to connect to THELMA, and THELMA's pay-as-you-go pricing structure, makes it very attractive to the public system.