CUSTOMER
PROFILE
Based in San Antonio, one of America's premier, multicultural
cities, Verity National Group, a third party administrator specializing
in data management and business processes, provides their customers
with a wide variety of benefit options backed by the technology
and speed of a much larger company. Verity National, which has
served public and private employers for nearly 20 years, specializes
in administering medical, dental, vision, disability and other
insurance benefits while helping organizations practice self governance
through state-of-the-art benefit plans.
The coordination of reinsurance, network, pharmacy, lab, wellness,
disease management, medical case management, and pre-certification
are all services that Verity National provides. They also consolidate
online benefit eligibility and billing for group coverage. To
provide their customers with consistent, quality service, they
draw on five performance measures including: extraordinary personal
attention, a passion for speed, uncompromised accuracy, technological
strength and a team of experienced executives and employees.
THE CHALLENGE
In 2005, Verity National Group was spun off of a much larger
company which had grown largely through acquisition. Verity
National Group's executive team came together from diverse corporate
backgrounds, where they shared one thing in common - a respect
and understanding for the value of sophisticated technology.
"We're big enough to provide customers with the depth of
products and service they require, but small enough to provide
a genuinely intimate relationship - something for which our
team is regularly complimented," says Laurie Burke, president
and chief financial officer, Verity National Group.
Prior to the spin-off, like many third party administrators,
Verity National found themselves in need of a comprehensive
claims processing solution. Two of the companies they acquired
were licensing Acclamation Systems' LuminX solution, and when
they ran due diligence on each of the systems, they found that
LuminX was faster and more robust than both proprietary and
custom-designed solutions.
"Claims processing comes down to time and money. As a
TPA, we manage money for other people. When it's your job to
make things flow, it's important to have a system that moves
quickly and has the support of a strong company behind it,"
Burke says. Verity National needed a system that would allow
them to cross train employees and to provide them the tools
to work faster and more efficiently.
THE SOLUTION
Verity National Group cross-trains their employees because they
realize that even the best processors cannot take customer service
calls if their goal is to process 400 claims daily. By creating
a comprehensive database of information and segregating duties,
employees can focus on achieving their daily goals. Customer
service reps have access to the customer's complete file, while
processors can focus on claims. Verity calls it single call
resolution. "All employees are cross-trained on duties
and all information is cross-referenced on the screen. You'll
never hear us say that we have to go retrieve your file or talk
to a processor," explains Burke.
"We can accomplish more work with fewer employees,"
Burke reports. She says the equation is simple, "If we
process more claims in less time, we don't need as many employees.
Our overhead is less and we pass the savings on to our customers."
She credits LuminX with providing the technology and speed,
and her team with bringing a great work ethic. "When you
combine these things, what normally can take ten days takes
us a matter of hours. We don't have a backlog of claims. Our
processors know that their day is over when the claims box is
empty," she says. "We can't cut the check until it's
funded by the client, but in most cases, we can promise that
the claim will be scanned, adjudicated, processed and on the
list for payment within one day."
THE RESULT
Today, Burke is not afraid to make and live up to bold promises
to her clients. "Our customers can select any day of the
week, and they will get a request for funding on every claim
we've processed in the past week. If a customer's RFF [request
for funding / billing request] day is Friday, and we receive
a huge batch of claims on Thursday, those claims will be processed
in time to appear on Friday's RFF report," she says.
"Our employees can process about twice the number of claims
as our competition, resulting in productivity measures we pass
on to customers in terms of lower rates and cost savings,"
Burke says. "When a large hospital sees how quickly our
customers' claims are paid, they may reward our faster service
with increased savings on services to our customers. By working
faster and more efficiently, Verity National can earn them greater
discounts than the TPA down the street." To learn more
about this customer, visit www.veritynational.com
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