Late 79/80 I worked in Charleston for the insurance company that handled the claims for all state employees. It was common practice to process the claim, create the check and hold payment for several months. All files at the time were paper. An employee would get a delinquent notice and we would grab their case folder from the shelf call the provider with check number, date processed and release date. I would have hated to be the one to create the dbase.
I was on the other end at a small rural hospital in the Allegheny Highlands. We would receive paid claim lists from PEIA and WV DPA,but once went 18 months without a check around 1989-90.Fun times trying to met payroll and pay vendors.