HealthAxis.com Case Study
Insur-Enroll Streamlines Benefits Enrollment Administration
The HealthAxis.com Applications Solutions group provides Web-based software applications that improve the efficiency of plan administration for the health-care insurance industry. The company's totally Web-enabled offering, Insur-Enroll, is a self-service benefits enrollment application built on the Microsoft© Windows© DNA platform. By reusing COM components from the company's library and integrating third-party applications into Insur-Enroll, HealthAxis.com was able to go online with the application in just six months.
Situation
Long before there was talk of e-commerce, the Irving, Texas-based Applications Solutions group of HealthAxis.com was building advanced technology solutions to help health-care administrators reduce administrative costs and improve customer service. As an Application Service Provider, HealthAxis.com had to create Web-based solutions to take advantage of the tremendous cost efficiencies for its customers by allowing 7 x 24-hour "customer self-service" access to its applications via the Internet.
HealthAxis.com started by developing a better way for companies to handle benefits enrollment. During open enrollment, companies cope with thousands of paper-based benefits applications, many of which are submitted in the last couple of days of the enrollment period. Companies often have to hire temporary employees to help key the applications into databases, but the process is still slow and often rife with errors. "Companies can just not accept, process, and return thousands of applications in a compressed time frame without inefficiencies-not even taking into account errors inherent in a paper-based system," says Robert Weir, vice president of product development at HealthAxis.com.
HealthAxis.com wanted to build a Web-based enrollment system to automate the process and help benefits administrators cut costs and improve customer service by allowing employees to enroll themselves in a company's benefits plan using the Internet or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology. Given its 20 years of experience automating the delivery of health-care administration solutions, HealthAxis.com knew that a self-service enrollment system could help companies cut their open enrollment costs in half.
Choosing an Internet Platform
HealthAxis.com, which also does custom systems integration and is a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider, was already committed to developing on the Microsoft Windows NT© operating system. HealthAxis.com developers had been developing Windows NT-based applications with the Visual Basic© and Visual InterDev© development systems for years. "We have a large group of developers with extensive experience in the Windows NT environment," says Weir. "The Windows DNA platform leveraged their skill sets, delivering even more than what we expected in terms of developer productivity."
Using a three-tiered distributed application architecture, HealthAxis.com had developed solutions that helped its health-care clients extend the life of their legacy systems by separating business logic from legacy-based data. "We consider Windows DNA a strategic platform," says Weir. "It extends the life of legacy systems."
This three-tiered approach is the backbone of Windows DNA, which is the Microsoft platform for building and deploying the Business Internet. The Windows DNA platform includes Windows NT Server and Windows 2000, along with the tools and services required for Web applications developers. It is a comprehensive, integrated platform for building and deploying Internet-enabled applications. The core product within Windows DNA is Windows 2000, an operating system with built-in Internet services that enable developers to focus on adding value to their applications rather than build the underlying infrastructure. Other key components include the Microsoft Visual Studio© development system, Microsoft SQL Server?, and the COM+ component and programming model, as well as other application services.
The specific demands of the enrollment application, named Insur-Enroll, also had other requirements. It needed to handle spikes in the benefits enrollment cycle. Security was also a major concern. An employee's health and retirement plans are extremely private, and HealthAxis.com needed to build Insur-Enroll on a platform they could trust to handle such sensitive data and keep it safe.
Microsoft's commitment to ongoing development also made Windows DNA the attractive choice for HealthAxis.com. The company already has plans in the works to upgrade to Windows 2000 and SQL Server 7.0. "Microsoft and its partners continually update their products to take advantage of the latest technology innovations," says Jim Bottrell, the project transitions director who oversees client implementations of Insur-Enroll for HealthAxis.com. "If Microsoft doesn't have a solution, one of its partners will. The rate of Microsoft's integrated product suite advancements exceeds that of other companies in the computer industry."
Reuse, Renew, Recycle
Windows DNA delivers on the company's core requirements-and on other key requirements as well.
Scalability. Thanks to Windows DNA, Insur-Enroll can scale out, using the power of software to manage a server farm. Currently, the solution is housed on two Compaq Pentium ProLiant Servers with dual 500 MHz processors. The Web server handles up to 250,000 hits a day during peak open enrollment periods.
Reliability. Insur-Enroll has run without any serious interruption since its launch in October 1998. HealthAxis performs full image backups each day to ensure the availability of data managed by SQL Server 6.5; up-to-the-minute recovery of information is made possible by an ongoing transaction log. The company is looking forward to upgrading to SQL Server 7.0 so that it can perform online backups and virtually eliminate the need to take the database offline.
Low development cost/fast time to market. To build Insur-Enroll, the developers first looked through their own library of a dozen or so Visual Basic COM objects that perform common business rules across the company's portfolio of solutions. Reusing these components, Weir says, cut development time in half. From start to finish, five developers delivered the initial release of Insur-Enroll in less than six months.
Interoperability. By choosing Windows DNA, HealthAxis.com could also choose from a wealth of third-party, off-the-shelf software to extend its own application. To add IVR capabilities, HealthAxis.com used Artisoft Visual Voice for TAPI. Because it is based on ActiveX© components, Visual Voice for TAPI can use the same COM objects that the Web interface does.
Security. Together, Windows NT and SQL Server can deliver 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. To further boost the application's security, HealthAxis.com added dual Cisco Secure PIX Firewalls.
Manageability. Because all processing is done on the server, making updates to the business logic is very easy.
A Three-Tiered Approach
Windows DNA supports a distributed application architecture that divides Web application logic into three tiers: the presentation or user interface layer, the business logic layer, and the data layer. By separating the components by layer, HealthAxis.com can guarantee seamless information flow between client and data. This three-tiered application bridges the gap between employees who use the application's Web- or IVR-based interface to shop for, choose, and enroll in benefits plans and the benefits providers who ultimately receive the data, regardless of platform concerns.
The presentation tier of Insur-Enroll-where individual users enter their benefits information-is written in HTML, so it works with virtually any Web browser. End users can also enter their benefits choices by phone using the IVR technology incorporated into the application and following the prompts. HealthAxis.com developed the interface using Visual InterDev.
The business logic tier is the heart of Insur-Enroll. Based on Windows NT Server 4.0, it houses the COM components that collect, process, and redistribute information. The components run on Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS). Among other things, they validate and ensure that the data presented to the end users is correct and complete. If a company offers five benefits plans, for example, the components check an employee's data-such as marital status and how long he or she has worked with the company-to determine which plans that employee can join. Similar components compute how much an employee would have to pay for benefits. Server-side scripting is written in Active Server Pages. Microsoft Message Queuing Server guarantees communication between applications.
The business logic tier also supports Exchange Server 5.5, Proxy Server, and Site Server 3.0. Exchange Server acts as the system's workflow manager. After data has been entered, verified, and processed, Exchange Server routes e-mail within 48 hours to the employee and the various benefits providers and insurance companies. To improve customer service, Exchange also routes questions in e-mail to specific benefits administrators. Proxy Server supports the Web connectivity to the Insur-Enroll Web server in Texas. Site Server monitors and reports traffic on the Web server to help HealthAxis.com determine which functions employees find most helpful.
The database tier stores the information that employees enter, which is added to the existing employee information. Companies are able to use their own database solutions because the procedures transmit data through an encrypted data file to keep the information secure at all points.
Insur-Enroll uses the same procedures to return the data back to the company and deliver it to other benefits providers and insurance companies. When the company moves to SQL Server 7.0, it plans to use Data Transformation Services (DTS) to exchange data with different companies. DTS provides export, transform, and loading (ETL) services between OLE DB, ODBC, and ASCII data stores through a native COM interface.
The SQL Server database captures and consolidates all the information related to the employees and their benefits, including plan and coverage selections, payroll deductions, and employee demographics.
A Healthy Enrollment Process
Insur-Enroll lays claim to being the industry's leading paperless benefits enrollment system available on the Web. Employees can register in their company's benefits plan without even picking up a pen.
Unigraphics Solutions Inc. (UGS) is just one of the companies that has used Insur-Enroll through its outsourced benefits administrator, SYLINQ Inc. UGS employees had to choose from 14 plans-including several different medical, dental, 401(k), stock purchase, and life insurance plans. To access the system, UGS employees either dialed into the Insur-Enroll system or logged on to the corporate intranet and then linked to the Insur-Enroll Web server in Texas. The enrollment site includes links to service providers that can help answer any questions they have about plan options. Plan documents and announcements are posted online for easy reference during the process, as are links to the 401(k) provider and a directory of health-care providers. The site also includes e-mail links so employees can ask questions 24 hours a day.
When employees log on to the system, the Insur-Enroll database knows their address, how long they've worked for the company, and their job title. Employees enter information about themselves and their dependents and select their benefits options. Insur-Enroll captures the data, processes it, stores it, and then sends an e-mail confirmation back to the employee within 48 hours.
Insur-Enroll is easy for administrators to use, too. On the day prior to the close of its open enrollment, UGS modified some of its plans. HealthAxis.com updated the system to reflect the new options-and Insur-Enroll re-enrolled all 1,400 employees over a three-day period. "We pulled it off without an issue," says Weir. "A paper-based system could not have handled this. First, you couldn't have made the change, and second, you wouldn't be able to handle that many applications in that short amount of time."
Such flexibility is one of the hallmarks of Insur-Enroll. "Windows DNA gave us the flexibility to make the application easy to use," says Bottrell. "The platform helped us create a powerful feature set, offering employees rich functionality without sacrificing system responsiveness."
Charting a Path to Healthy Computing
In addition to reducing administration costs by as much as 60 percent, Insur-Enroll has helped companies decrease processing time, increase the accuracy of information, and improve customer service. End-of-year estimates in 1999 put the total number of employees served by Insur-Enroll at 100,000.
Using the Windows DNA platform, HealthAxis.com has Web-enabled many of its proprietary solutions. The company offers paperless solutions for health-care claims processing and benefits administration, all available to end users online 7 X 24-hours over the Internet. "After using it and having such success with Windows DNA," says Bottrell, "we've come to appreciate the reliability and scalability of the platform. We are committed to using the same platform for future solutions."
"Microsoft Windows DNA is the most comprehensive, integrated platform for building and deploying applications for the Business Internet. The core of Windows DNA is Windows 2000, an operating system with built-in Internet services that enable developers to focus on adding value to their applications rather than wasting time on the underlying infrastructure. Other components include Visual Studio, SQL Server, the COM+ component and programming model and other application services, all best-of-breed products that leverage the deepest developer talent pool in the industry. The Windows DNA platform is the fastest, easiest path to developing and deploying serious applications for the Business Internet."
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Last Updated: February 4, 2000
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Solution Overview
Customer Profile
HealthAxis.com provides Web-enabled solutions for health-care insurance marketing, sales, and administration.
Business Situation
HealthAxis.com wanted to build a Web-based "customer self-service" benefits enrollment application.
Solution
Building Insur-Enroll on Windows© DNA enabled HealthAxis.com to build a feature-rich, robust Web-enabled solution. Developers also saved time and money by using existing COM components and third-party applications.
Microsoft Software and Services
Microsoft© Exchange Server 5.5
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0
Microsoft Site Server? 3.0
Microsoft SQL Server 6.5
Microsoft Visual Basic©
Microsoft Visual InterDev©
Microsoft Windows NT© Server 4.0
Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0
Microsoft Message Queuing Server
Microsoft Transaction Server
Third Party Products
ArtiSoft Visual Voice for TAPI
Cisco Secure PIX Firewall
"Microsoft and its partners continually update their products to take advantage of the latest technology innovations. If Microsoft doesn't have a solution, one of its partners will. The rate of Microsoft's advancements exceeds that of other companies in the computer industry."
Jim Bottrell
Project Transitions Director, HealthAxis
"Windows DNA gave us the flexibility to make the application easy to use. The platform helped us create a powerful feature set, offering employees rich functionality without sacrificing system responsiveness."
Jim Bottrell
Project Transitions Director, HealthAxis
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