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To: Magnifique who wrote (3477)	4/7/1998 9:49:00 PM
From: Magnifique	Respond to of 4148

For Underwriting, NC Blue Turns to an Expert Joint effort with PLATINUM technology to increase accuracy and productivity By Christy Tauhert Expert systems are quite a draw for health insurers that want to automate and improve the accuracy and efficiency of their underwriting process, especially when mistakes affect the bottom line. This was a concern at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC, Durham, NC, nearly $1 billion in assets), which embarked on an underwriting expert systems project for medical applications with PLATINUM technology (Oakbrook Terrace, IL) that not only increased the accuracy of underwriting decisions, but cut the underwriting process in its small group health unit from five days to just minutes. "We saw the need to get more consistency in our underwriting decisions and increase productivity in the underwriting process," says John Friesen, vice president of BCBSNC's actuarial and underwriting services unit. The NC Blue, which offers managed care, traditional indemnity, group and individual health insurance, had such concerns in mind when it came across PLATINUM in mid-1995. PLATINUM's programming expertise, combined with BCBSNC's underwriting expertise, proved to be a good fit for a joint project to develop an automated underwriting system, says Friesen. PLATINUM consultants worked with the insurer's underwriting and IT employees to co-develop an automated underwriting expert system framework using PLATINUM's Aion application development environment. Setting up the core system involved gathering and creating rules for the system. Business rules were created according to 157 ICD-9 codes (International Classification of Diseases medical condition codes). The automated system asks for the patient's conditions, medications and treatments. When it has enough information, the system makes a decision accordingly, says Friesen. Solution: Expert Underwriting Company Name: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Durham, NC, $1 billion in assets. Lines of Business: Managed care, traditional indemnity, group and individual health insurance. Vendor/Technology: PLATINUM technology's (Oakbrook Terrace, IL) Aion, multiplatform application development environment; Powerbuilder; IMS and Oracle database servers; and Sybase NetGateway interface. The Challenge: Increase the accuracy and productivity of underwriting medical applications for small group health products. Once rules had been created in the Aion rule base, a Powerbuilder graphical user interface was built to collect enrollment data on Windows 95-based client PCs (used by 10 to 20 underwriters) and pass it to Aion. They then process the data and feed the results to an IMS database server that is supported by an MVS-based IBM mainframe. Sybase NetGateway, a database interface, integrates the rules base in Aion with the IMS database, client PCs, a Unix server, the mainframe and BCBSNC's proprietary rate quoting, risk management and policy writing systems. A second database, Oracle (running a Unix server), receives enrollment data for management reporting. For the pilot, BCBSNC used a few medical conditions to make sure the underwriting decisions were being made accurately. A complete implementation process began in April 1997 to create the rest of the rules, and the system went live in September 1997. The solution has saved the NC Blue money in terms of the type of employees it needs to facilitate the underwriting process, which now only requires analysts or enrollment entry people to enter key information into the system. As a result, BCBSNC was able to eliminate two full-time employees and change responsibilities for three others.

To: Magnifique who wrote (3477)	4/7/1998 9:50:00 PM
From: Magnifique	Respond to of 4148

PLATINUM technology Improves Application Performance with Index Expert, Only Tool of Its Kind for DB2 New tool speeds design of indexes, increasing speed of database access and saving money and time Oakbrook Terrace, IL, April 7, 1998 - As part of its ongoing commitment to DB2, PLATINUM technology, inc. (NASDAQ: PLAT) today announced Index Expert, the first index design tool available for mainframe DB2 databases. Index Expert significantly speeds response time for queries to DB2-based applications by automating the design of efficient indexes, which provide direct access paths to the databases supplying information to applications. Using Index Expert, database administrators (DBAs) no longer need to devote hours to the labor-intensive process of index design, saving development time and money. The tool also allows organizations to make more efficient use of system resources, reducing the need for costly hardware upgrades. Databases lacking optimal indexes respond to queries much slower than properly indexed databases. In applications where response time is critical, such as online order processing systems, optimal indexes can have major impact on the business - for example, indexes can help shorten the time it takes to complete an order online, or allow more orders to be processed in a given length of time. Index Expert helps ensure that optimal indexes are designed and used. "Without the help of an automated tool, it can take a developer days to formulate the indexes required for today's large, complex applications," said Sheryl Larsen, principal consultant at RYC, Inc. and a member of the IBM DB2 Gold Consultants team. "With Index Expert, indexes can quickly be conceived from automated analysis of thousands of lines of code. By taking the guesswork out of the index-composing process, Index Expert substantially reduces the time required to create index designs." "Also, quite often, index design is either incomplete or not optimal due to deadline pressures and lack of resources," said Larsen. "By allowing IT staff to automate the design of all the optimal and necessary indexes, Index Expert greatly enhances database and application efficiency. IT staff might cost-justify the purchase of this product based on CPU savings alone." "In July 1997, a white paper issued by IBM* reported that an automated index designer is one of the key tools needed by DB2 developers," said Scott Kane, senior vice president of database management products at PLATINUM. "With the release of Index Expert, PLATINUM is the first company to provide such a tool. PLATINUM fully understands the challenges faced by the database development community, and with more than 10 years experience in providing quality database management tools, we have the expertise necessary to provide products and services that meet our customers' specific needs." Index Expert adds to PLATINUM's extensive portfolio of tools for DB2 development, a market that continues to expand as large organizations increase their investment in mainframe-based applications and hardware. Research firm IDC estimates that worldwide software revenues for IBM-mainframe database administration tools will grow to approximately $640 million by 2001. PLATINUM is one of the leading vendors of tools for managing DB2 and other relational databases, including Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Microsoft SQL Server.