Independence Blue Cross (IBC) will roll out a new benefits plan analysis tool to its Benefits Coding & Development department in the first quarter of 2007.
Now with DST Health Solutions’ PowerAnalyzer product, “IBC will be able to more efficiently design and code benefits, ultimately reducing the administrative costs associated with Benefits complexities,” said Yvette Bright, senior vice president of eBusiness and Operations for IBC.
The health plan, which serves approximately 3.4 million members in southeastern Pennsylvania, consolidated its HMO and PPO businesses onto DST Health Solutions’ PowerMHS platform in 2005.
“Now that we have both lines of businesses on this platform, we are focused on enhancing operating efficiencies,” Bright said.
IBC can now identify shared traits across benefit designs, which in turn will help simplify the process of making product design changes and benefit changes that occur during the quarterly code updates.
“IBC plans to continue to focus on reducing our administrative costs and improving the accuracy of our business processes,” Bright said. “There are many initiatives underway aimed at achieving this goal, and we will measure benefit coding timeliness and accuracy as part of our overall program.”
Steve Sabino, president of DST Health Systems, noted that health plans expend time and resources configuring and maintaining benefit plans. “Regulatory, medical policy and product changes that impact benefit plans occur on a regular basis,” he said.
The benefits software lets health plans reduce the amount of time spent analyzing benefit data and auditing benefit plans. “The time saved on analysis and reduction of errors due to better quality translates into lower administrative expenses for the health plan,” said Sabino.
With the consumer-directed healthcare movement maturing, many health plans are now realizing the added value from HIT systems that address a particular business.
“CDHP (consumer-directed health plans) is a driver for this type of product,” Sabino said. “In order to remain competitive in today’s environment, health plans must offer a greater variety and flexibility in benefit options to consumers.”
As consumers demand more choices, health plans must deal with multiple plans and their variations. Streamlining the analysis process has become a business requirement.
“CDHP is still evolving, so health plans need the ability to quickly assess their benefit plan offerings to keep pace with the market,” Sabino said.