In partnership with ikaSystems, MVP Health Care, a regional, not-for-profit health insurer headquartered in Schenectady, New York, has gone live with the first phase of its large-scale Web-based portal implementation. Designed to give sales staff, brokers, employers and members “quote to card” functionality on the Web, ikaSystems Sales/Broker Portal makes it easier and faster for more brokers to sell MVP’s small-group commercial products, reducing the insurer’s administrative costs while enhancing its market competitiveness.

“MVP Health Care is moving aggressively to expand our market share through new and unique distribution channels, which requires an entirely different portal strategy than we’ve had in the past,” said Dave Henderson, MVP’s executive vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer. “ikaSystems has been an ideal partner in this venture, as the company not only offers us the best technology currently on the market but also the business expertise and collaborative approach that quickly transform the technology from good idea to practical solution. We completed our system requirements at the end of May and had a fully functional portal on October 1, just four short months later. The very first week we were live, brokers generated 175 ‘instant quotes’ online.”

ikaSystems’ Sales/Broker Portal automates all steps in the sales process, from prospecting through quoting, underwriting, enrollment and ID card generation, minimizing internal administrative efforts and cost while speeding the time from lead to close. Sales staff and brokers can get an immediate quote for their business prospects and clients, quickly tailor and fine-tune plans and programs to fit specific needs, and easily illustrate the differences between multiple plan options — all with a few clicks of a mouse. In addition, a significant portion of employer groups can be automatically rated, leaving the complicated cases for the underwriters. A process that would have taken days, even weeks of paper-based iterations can now be completed in real time online, and sales management can carefully track and monitor all activities and gain better insights than ever before.

“The ikaSystems implementation involved interfacing with several of our internal technical, Web and security teams, as well as with several vendors and consultants all working on separate projects related to the ikaSystems implementation,” explained chief information officer Jack VanGraafeiland. “The ikaSystems team seamlessly integrated with these teams and their projects, really stepping up to facilitate the project and keep it organized and on track. We implemented a quote-to-card project along with single-sign-on, a Web upgrade project and a FACETS claims system upgrade — all on the same weekend. I don’t know of any other company besides ikaSystems that could pull off a project of that kind of complexity in such a short time span.”

Lou Pietrocarlo, MVP’s project manager, added, “The ikaSystems team fit right in with all of our project management methodologies and procedures. They worked alongside us every step of the way and were partners in the true sense of the word. When we ran into roadblocks, ikaSystems dug in and found a way to keep us moving toward success. I have never felt this level of support and commitment from any other vendor.”

The small group new business portal is the first step in a multi-year project scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2010. The ultimate goal is to create an online presence, similar to Amazon.com, that leverages member/user information to create additional, customized sales opportunities, either for MVP products and services or for those offered through a diverse group of affiliated partners, such as life insurance companies, banks and law firms. MVP expects the project to achieve a 4-to-1 return on investment in four years.

“Complex business processes and systems are common in the health insurance industry, and MVP is no exception,” Matt Manella, MVP’s project sponsor, summed up. “Based on the recent delivery of our new sales and underwriting automation functionality, ikaSystems has proven it can deliver highly configurable functionality that can be customized to a defined set of workflows. The company has also been highly flexible in demonstrating its ability to integrate Web-based functionality with our overall internal systems.”

According to Ravi Ika, president of ikaSystems, “In the health insurance market, MVP is a true visionary in its desire to apply techniques used successfully in other industries and use technology to draw more precise yet comprehensive connections between its customers and the products and services they need. Making it easier for sales staff and brokers to perform their roles efficiently and effectively is an exciting first step in this process. ikaPortals, which push transactions outside the health plan to sales/brokers, providers, employers and members, are an ideal solution for health plans looking to grow while keeping administrative costs low — we have seen our clients decrease administrative costs by as much as 40 percent with this approach. At the same time, they gain flexible, modular technology that allows them to collect more accurate and thorough information as well as disseminate this information more fluidly and transparently between all healthcare stakeholders, decreasing costs as well as improving the quality of care.”

To watch a video about MVP’s “instant quote” capabilities for small groups, please see http://www.mvphealthcare.com/broker/small_quote_demo/index.html.

About MVP Health Care

MVP is a family of companies offering a range of health benefit plans and options combined with leading-edge wellness programs that reduce health risks and control health care costs. The company has more than 700,000 members in New York state, Vermont and New Hampshire. MVP offers fully insured and self-funded employer health benefit plans, dental insurance and ancillary products, such as flexible spending accounts. For more information, see www.mvphealthcare.com/press.

About ikaSystems Corp.

ikaSystems is healthcare payers’ premier provider of Web-based ERP technology for process automation and intelligence management. ikaEnterprise, the company’s flagship product, automates all key processes in the payer business cycle, supporting commercial, Medicare and Medicaid lines of business. The system consists of five stand-alone, self-service Web portals for sales/broker, administrative, employer, member and provider use, each of which are tightly integrated with business intelligence and transactional systems for core claims adjudication, care management and proactive quality measurement and reporting. Using our agile, modular technology, organizations can move quickly to lower administrative and medical care expenses through greater automation and highly intelligent decision-making. To learn more, please visit www.ikasystems.com.