HP Enterprise Services and Blue Shield of California have signed a five-year contract under which HP will provide technology infrastructure and applications support to the not-for-profit health plan, which has 3.3 million members.
Under the contract, terms of which were not disclosed, HP will continue providing applications development and management services for more than 100 Blue Shield core administrative data and corporate systems as part of the new agreement. HP will manage these applications using tiered service levels designed to enable Blue Shield to more effectively align and better manage its applications environment as opportunities are presented.
[See also: Blue Shield of California to limit net income to 2 percent of revenue.]
"In an industry facing constant change, we remain committed to improving service to customers, providers and employers while keeping costs down," said Elinor MacKinnon, senior vice president and chief information officer, Blue Shield of California. "HP is uniquely positioned to provide the hardware, software and services we need to deliver new products at a lower cost to our customers throughout California."
HP also will provide applications services using its global delivery system to connect existing centers of excellence with software professionals across Blue Shield projects, officials say.
The Blue Shield systems reside on mainframe, midrange servers hosted in a secure HP data center supported by HP Managed Mainframe Services and HP Server Management Services. HP Continuity Services provide a robust disaster-recovery strategy with data mirrored in primary and secondary sites for backup and restore.
[See also: Blue Shield of California gives $20M in ACO help.]
"Healthcare reform and rising costs are driving transformation across the insurance industry, requiring Blue Shield to focus more on streamlining and standardizing to adapt to market demands," said Sue Arthur, vice president, healthcare and life sciences industry, HP Enterprise Services. "Our strong relationship with Blue Shield enables us to support their business transformational goals and help them remain focused on delivering quality, affordable healthcare coverage to the people of California."