BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina

S.C. BlueCross Director Recognized Nationally for Advancing Health Care Administrative Efficiencies

December 10, 2010

Columbia, S.C. – WEDI (Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange), a health care industry coalition that advances administrative simplification through electronic data interchange and is a named advisor to the federal government, recognized BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina’s Jim Daley with several awards at its recent national conference.

Daley, a director in BlueCross’ information systems department, received the WEDI Distinguished Service Award, recognizing individuals who have provided significant leadership to the fulfillment of WEDI’s mission, objectives, programs and overall volunteer activities. He also won the Andrew H. Melczer Excellence in Volunteerism Award, recognizing him for providing exemplary service by giving his time to association and/or industry activities on a national basis.

In addition, Daley was re-elected to the WEDI Board of Directors, where he will serve with representatives from the American Medical Association, the American Dental Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans Association, health care technology companies and others. Daley also was designated as chair-elect.

Daley is instrumental at S.C. BlueCross in heading its ongoing conversion to ICD-10 coding, a major endeavor by the health care industry that is due for completion by October 2013. ICD (The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems) are codes classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and used for health claims filing and disease reporting.

ICD-10 revises the current system to include a far more comprehensive catalog of descriptive terminology, including some 141,000 total codes compared with the current 24,000. Health Data Management magazine, in its May 2010 issue, commented on the topic of ICD-10: “The scope of this transition is monumental, touching virtually every nook and cranny of the health industry, impacting providers, payers and vendors.”

Having been active with WEDI (www.wedi.org) for more than 10 years, Daley often represents WEDI as well as BlueCross in trade press interviews, national events and in testimony to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.

Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. The only South Carolina-owned and operated health insurance carrier, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina comprises more than 30 companies involved in health insurance services, U.S. DoD health program and Medicare contracts, other insurance and employee benefits services, and a philanthropic foundation that funds programs to improve health care and access to health care for South Carolinians.