Suva uses Big Data

The Suva is now using data traces to keep medical costs under control. It identifies content patterns from millions of invoices and can now use them to identify conspicuous data: for example, diagnoses that do not match medications, or two medications whose effects contradict each other. With Big Data analytics Suva receives information as to whether the service providers are billing correctly and plausibly.

"This invoice control is central for us, as we have to handle our customers' premium money carefully," says Felix Weber, member of Suva's Executive Board. Suva receives 2.3 million invoices a year, and rejects more than 12 percent of them. It can happen, for example, that an accident patient's bills also list his prostate or asthma medication, or that services are billed twice. Since the introduction of the Swiss DRG flat-rate system in 2012, a program developed by Suva can also detect discrepancies in coding. Overall, thanks to Big Data, Suva prevents itself from incorrectly overpaying 160 million francs a year - or around 450,000 francs a day.