SAN DIEGO and CONCORD, Calif., May 18/PRNewswire/ -- Mitchell International, Inc., a leading provider of medical cost containment, provider networks, workflow solutions and decision support tools to over 70% of U.S. automotive insurance payers, and Jopari Solutions, a leading supplier of eBill Processing and Gateway Services to Workers' Compensation, Auto Medical and Group Health Payers, say 'Green Transaction Initiatives' play a key role in environmental best practices. Green transactions involve migration to electronic medical bills, payments and documentation. In addition to reduced processing costs, insurers making a commitment to green transactions benefit from sustainable business processes and natural resource conservation.

According to Mitchell and Jopari, challenging conditions in Group Health and Non-Group Health markets have caused many payers not to pursue green initiatives as a top priority. Payers have focused their available Information Technology assets strategically on product performance, sales effectiveness and decision support - but not specifically on removing paper from the business process value chain.

Deepening environmental consciousness, however, is increasing public demand for greater social contributions from the business community. Regulatory activity also is encouraging industry to adopt clean business practices, while model corporate citizenship standards now identify low-carbon footprint as a business operations metric.

State level environmental legislation together with the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) recently introduced in Congress, are shining a critical spotlight on paper intensive industries. Consequently, business activities that involve high relative resource consumption - such as the insurance industry's conventional processing of medical transactions - today are vulnerable to negative societal perceptions and might be losing customers who chose insurance carriers based on commitments to green business practices.

Detrimental social perceptions present market risk and are a new factor challenging Workers' Compensation, Auto Medical and Group Health payers to shift valuable IT assets toward paperless transactions capability, or acquire green technology from suppliers like Mitchell and Jopari. Mitchell-Jopari Gateway Services strip paper off the medical bill life cycle through connectivity based exchange of medical transactions, documents and associated communications.

Stated J.R. "Steve" Stevens, Jopari's Chief Executive Officer: "Switching to electronic medical bills, payments and remittance is a low-hanging green initiative, strategically. Implementing Mitchell-Jopari Gateway Services entails nominal IT investment to achieve an immediate green processing win. Carbon reduction calculations show for every 1 million customer electronic bill and payment transactions we process, more than 186 tons of paper are not consumed - the equivalent of 173,000 trees saved; over 9,550 barrels of oil are not burned; and generation of 7,400 tons of greenhouse gasses is avoided. The National Automated Clearinghouse Association (NACHA) provides 'green calculator' tools that validate these kinds of green transaction savings. We are pleased resource conservation our services provide protects our customers' reputations and contributes to their green business objectives."

Mitchell and Jopari engage customers and business partners at all levels defining good corporate citizenship dimensions of the Companies' sustainable processing services. Their zero-carbon transactions deliver an environmental dividend to customers, over and above direct dollar savings.

Remarked Tom McCarthy, Executive Vice President of Mitchell International: "Natural resource and energy conservation is inherent to electronic transactions. This fact allows our customers to verify and promote a clear commitment to sustainable business practices. Our view is all insurance payers should understand that delaying green transaction initiatives magnifies their reputational risk as well as expense burden. Even though electronic transactions cost 75% less in dollar terms than conventional paper workflow, gains in corporate citizenship also rationalize conversion."

Some 12 Billion Group Health, Workers' Compensation and Auto Medical transactions are processed annually in the United States. Each billion medical transactions exchanged electronically is equivalent to avoiding over 73 square miles of deforestation. Mitchell and Jopari are collaborating with customers and business partners to advance this significant environmental protection goal.

About Mitchell International

Mitchell International, Inc. (www.mitchell.com) provides the Insurance P&C market with a variety of technology, database and service solutions with one goal in mind -enable our clients to process their automotive medical claims in a timely, accurate and fair manner. Mitchell International has a 20 year track record of delivering high-quality products and services to auto insurance carriers, service providers and TPAs, allowing them to audit and evaluate first and third-party provider and hospital bills. Mitchell International currently serves many of the top automobile and workers compensation P&C companies and is a leading provider of information, workflow, and performance management solutions to the automotive insurance claims industry, also serving carriers, collision repair facilities, and other commercial participants in the physical damage and automobile and workers compensation related medical claims markets.

About Jopari Solutions, Inc.

Jopari Solutions, Inc. supplies Integrated Compliance and Payment Solutions to Workers' Compensation, Auto, and Health Insurance Industry Payers. Jopari services are SAS70 Level 1 & 2 certified, in addition to HIPAA, GLBA and OFAC compliant. Jopari significantly improves the technology Payers use to manage bills and disbursements, substantially reducing associated expenses. Jopari services enable insurance Payers to comply fully with regulatory requirements, including eBill and ePay jurisdictional initiatives and HIPAA. Insurance and other industry Payers take advantage of JopariPay(TM) to permanently downsize bill cycle processing and labor costs, increase operational competitiveness and realize immediate returns on investment. For more information, visit http://www.jopari.com/