Executive Summary
The Ultra-Link subsidiary of Allianz Insurance
needed a way to capture insurance information for millions of employees located
in thousands of distributed locations for companies nationwide. Micro Database Specialists
responded with a flexible and extensible system that accepts data from each
employer, in the employer's proprietary format, and matches employee information
with HMO payments, ensuring the reliable delivery of health care for millions of
families nationwide.
The Challenge
Allianz' Ultra-Link division is responsible for
coordinating HMO benefit information for companies with nationally or regionally
distributed locations. Without an automated system, Ultra-Link was forced
to manually match lists of employees with their HMO, resulting in multiple
errors, and potentially resulting in improper denial of coverage to
patients. This manual process resulted in an unacceptably high error
rate, severely limited the growth and
profitability of Ultra-Link, as well as forcing excessively high staffing, and
frequent staff turnover due to the tiresome nature of the work.Our Solution
Micro Database Specialists, Inc. began by
creating a standard file format where Clients could send information to
Ultra-Link for validation and import directly into their database. For
clients that could not send information to this standard, Micro Database
Specialists created a flexible program that the Ultra-Link staff could use to
read files in any format, and convert them to their own. This
standardization allowed Ultra-Link to grow it's served subscriber base by 100%
in one year.
Having completed these basic tasks, Micro Database Specialists
then created a client-server application where Ultra-Link staff could call up
any subscribers information, and historical changes, to make immediate changes
and/or corrections on line, generating a complete audit trail as they did.
This further enhanced the accuracy of the system, and the cost savings realized
by more accurate HMO payments paid for the system in it's first year of
operation.
As Ultra-Link's subscriber base continued to grow, staff size
remained constant, because our system enabled each worker to handle a greater
workload with less effort. The system became a selling point for
Ultra-Link's sales team, enabling it to secure accounts with Kinko's, Lucent,
IBM, and American Airlines, despite the wildly different file formats and
benefits plans for each employer.
Micro Database Specialists involvement grew
to managing and training a five person team of programmers to maintain, modify, and extend the system, eliminating
Ultra-Link's concerns about IS staff changes, and freeing upper management resources.
Results
Micro Database Specialists system allowed Ultra-Link to grow it's business at
over 50% annually, with no increase in staff. Due to the competitive
nature of the industry, the system allowed Ultra-Link to reduce prices to it's
Clients, and maintain profitability while helping to keep health care costs
affordable.
About Ultra-Link
UltraLink offers Internet-based and
full-service solutions that simplify employee benefits processes for employers,
brokers, consultants and carriers. They offer paper-based and call-center versions of iElect’s
online enrollment process for employees who don’t have Internet access. Call center services are available in both English and Spanish, 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, and offer an employee-friendly alternative to impersonal IVR
enrollment systems. Ultra-Link fulfills
and distributes Summary Plan Descriptions and other communications to employees
of Clients to either supplement or replace online benefit communications.
Ultra-Link offers customized enrollment and administration solutions for
each client’s to include just the right mix of online and offline services for
maximum return on investment. Ultra-Link serves as the single point of
contact for all administrative needs such as eligibility maintenance/reporting
and premium billing/reconciliation, plus COBRA and FSA administration. More information is available at
http://www.ibenefits.com
