Healthcare IT News - September 2008 - (Page 34) 34 Healthcare IT News September 2008 ■ www.HealthcareITNews.com NEWSBRIEFS BluE ShIEld oF CalIFoRNIa FouNdatIoN gIvES $4M FoR It SAN FRANCISCO - Seventeen nonprofits across California will receive $7.7 million in grants from the Blue Shield of California Foundation. The foundation will award $2.7 million to support the healthcare safety net and healthcare reform, $4 million to information technology, and $1 million toward efforts to reduce domestic violence. “We are making significant investments to support innovation across California that improves lives by strengthening the safety net, improving healthcare quality, and reducing teen dating violence,” said Crystal Hayling, BSCF president and CEO. Humana acquires debit card technology By PaTTy ENrado, Contributing Editor – Humana will license Evolution Benefits’ patented technology for automatically substantiating flexible spending account (FSA) and health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) debit card payments at the point of service. “This is the first license sought for the use of our patent in connection with real-time LOUISVILLE, KY substantiation in the debit card field,” said Bob Patricelli, CEO and co-founder o f Ev o l u t i o n Benefits. T he agree ment between Humana and the provider of Bob Patricelli electronic benefit payment solutions, for the employee benefits market veri- fies the importance of real-time data matching, he said. Evolution Benefits is experiencing a 40 percent annual growth thanks to the growth of FSAs and HSAs. “With out-of-pocket expenses going up, the argument for using pre-tax dollars for healthcare expenses is getting stronger,” he said. “Using debit cards is the easiest way to administer these products.” Patricelli pointed out that organizations that use its competitors’ card services technology, mainly Metavante and First Data, need the auto-substantiation license for payment processing. Humana has its own debit card through Metavante. Evolution Benefits has very high auto-substantiation rates HumaNa see page 37 NY payer rolls out retail portal ‘Leveling the playing field’ for smaller agencies. By PaTTy ENrado, Contributing Editor SCHENECTADY, NY – MVP Health aRkaNSaS BluES hElpS MEMBERS MaNagE dISEaSE LITTLE ROCK, AR – In an effort to help members better manage their acute and chronic diseases, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield will use a care management system from The TriZetto Group. The Little Rock-based health insurer will deploy Trizetto’s Clinical CareAdvance system, which is designed to consolidate data from three legacy systems and integrate several manual processes currently used by Arkansas BCBS to streamline and improve processes. The system will track each activity and provide an audit trail. Anthem BCBS launches ER pilot program INDIANAPOLIS kaISER aIMS to BooSt Call CENtER pRoduCtIvIty OAKLAND, CA – The Kaiser Permanente health plan has selected technology from Cambridge, Mass.-based Pegasystems for its national call centers. Called Customer Process Manager for Healthcare, the technology replaces Kaiser’s existing system. It is used by health payers to optimize the customer experience, drive higher first call resolution rates and lower call handling times, said Alan Trefler, Pegasystems CEO. CovENtRy hEalth CaRE addS It FoR tElEMoNItoRINg BETHESDA, MD – Managed healthcare company Coventry Health Care will implement a new interoperability platform and infrastructure technology to support its home health telemonitoring program. Coventry selected technology from Wayne, Pa.-based InterComponentWare Inc. – ICW’s Professional Exchange Server (PXS) and Device Connectivity Solution. Coventry’s pilot program features the deployment of home health medical devices to congestive heart failure (CHF) patients in a defined geographic region, along with care management services and patient data exchange for the physicians. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: PaYerS 0908 Care will roll out in October the small group and new business market phase of its largescale sales and marketing portal implementation. When the portal is completed by first quarter 2010, the regional health plan will be able to sell a full range of ancillary products and services, such as legal, life and disability, through a wider distribution channel akin to the retail model of Amazon.com, said Dave Henderson, executive vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer. The portal tool will help MVP reduce distribution costs by eliminating manual processes, reduce administrative cost through sales, expand distribution channel beyond the 20 percent of brokers that sell 80 percent of its business into other avenues of selling its products, By the first quarter of 2010, MVP Health Care of Schenectady, N.Y., will be able to sell a full range of ancillary products and services through its new retail portal. such as banks, associations and online, Henderson said. “Technology will allow us to be where customers make their decisions and engage them at the right time,” he said, referring to the individual market. The tool will help brokers manage a bigger share of their business and close deals more quickly, which would incentivize brokers to sell more of MVP’s products. The tool will also level the playing field for the smaller broker agencies by giving them new functionalities and delivering greater competition to the marketplace, said Henderson. The base technology will position MVP to target students in the individual market by marketing through PDAs mvP see page 36 – Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana is piloting an ER initiative program aimed at reducing emergency room visits. Anthem’s ER Initiative Program is being piloted in Evansville, where it serves nearly 10,000 Medicaid managed care members. Deaconess Hospital, a 365-bed acute care teaching hospital serving southern Indiana, southeastern Illinois and western Kentucky, collaborated with Anthem to track and trend emergency room visits. “Our ability to capture this information in real time as the member was in the emergency room is an important part of our program,” said Stanley Reed, medical director for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: aNtHeM 0908 ● Business Processing & IT Outsourcing Demand for services in U.S. healthcare 100 arizona Blues launches online tool for employers By PaTTy ENrado, Contributing Editor *Lab Services, Pharmacy Benefit services 80 60 40 20 0 18% 9% Device Makers 82% 73% 9% Government Services* Providers Payers ● e ● Connect: GraPHS 0908 SOuRCE: EquATERRA HEALTHCARE PuLSE SuRvEy 2008 – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ) recently launched an online tool that will enable employers to manage their healthcare costs and employee wellness. Providing employer groups with aggregated cost and utilization data to make strategic business decisions is “definitely a trend” among health plans, said Lynne Dunbrack, program PHOENIX director at Health Industry Insights. “More employers are looking at ways to manage the health of their employees through a number of different programs and initiatives,” she said. “Identifying employees that are chronically ill and need preemptive interventions is a major step towards proactive care management.” arIzoNa see page 35 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://Amazon.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9906 http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9908
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