Customer experience

Las Vegas - A feature on its Web sites that links directly to a physician's office has garnered an award for BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. The feature, called STATchat, took top honors in the "Best Use of Technology" category during the 3rd Annual Call Center Excellence Awards held recently in Las Vegas. STATchat allows a physician's office staff to call BlueCross over the Internet and gives them priority for customer service. Physician office staff members simply click on the STATchat icon to call for assistance without dialing any numbers by using an inexpensive headset with microphone. STATchat links the staff member with a BlueCross provider services agent, ahead of calls from physician offices using traditional phone lines. Both the awards and the conference are organized by the International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC). Experts and practitioners in the call center field judged this year's award entries. "Providers who utilize our STATchat feature receive the help they need with little or no wait time," said David Boucher, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina's assistant vice president of health care services. "This allows our providers to better focus on their vital role of caring for their patients." Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Source: PR Newswire

Oakland, Calif. - Web-based options are playing a larger role in doctor-patient interaction, notes Kaiser Permanente. The Oakland, Calif., health insurer released a study that was published in the American Journal of Managed Care and describes how secure e-mail changes the way patients choose to access medical care. "Patient access to electronic health record with secure messaging: impact on primary care utilization" examines the use of secure e-mail between Kaiser Permanente members and physicians. According to the study: Patients with online access to an electronic health record (EHR) are choosing to use secure e-mail, thereby decreasing the number of primary care office visits and telephone contact rates. The study noted that the use of secure e-mail linked to an EHR decreased annual adult primary care outpatient visit rates by 7 to 10% and led to 14% fewer phone contacts than those not using online services. "The access to personal health management tools, including secure email is helping our members get care how and when they want it," states Yvonne Zhou, PhD, one of the authors of the study. "It is valuable to have been able to document an evolving trend that shows consumers are choosing to replace office visits and phone calls with electronic communication with their doctors." More than 1.4 million Kaiser Permanente members are registered to use the company's secure online services. Since launching secure e-mail services, more than 2.7 million e-mail messages have been sent to providers. Source: PR Newswire

CIGNA HealthCare, Hartford, Conn., announced yesterday that it will begin providing online precertification this fall to more than 365,000 physicians in its national network.

A former insurance agent from Penn Valley, Calif., was convicted of one felony count of insurance fraud and three misdemeanor counts of petty theft for collecting insurance premiums from clients for commercial general liability and commercial automobile insurance and failed to remit the premiums to insurers. A former Allstate insurance agent was charged with a single count of theft, a Class D felony, after an investigation revealed that he had accepted and deposited his clients' checks without applying the funds toward their policies. A Louisiana-based agent was arrested, transported to jail and booked on four counts of insurance fraud and one count of forgery for altering insurance applications to increase the previously agreed upon premium amount, thereby increasing his commission. In one instance, he forged the client's initials to changes without the client's knowledge or consent.All three of these stories graced the news within a week-and-a-half, and are just a few that have recently made headlines. Independent agents seem to be finding more ways to commit fraud and practice unethical business--creating false insurance entities, fraud rings, misinterpreting policies and just flat--out stealing policyholders' money.

Identity theft, long the bane of IT departments, is also providing insurance companies with opportunities to offer a new kind of coverage and score some marketing points at the same time.Carriers are hiring third-party services to restore policyholders' stolen identities. In general, here's how it works: The victim calls the insurer to report the ID theft. After establishing the validity of the claim, the carrier transfers the caller to the vendor's call center. The third-party vendor swings into action, drawing upon relationships with credit rating agencies and other institutions to refurbish the victim's credit. Meanwhile, the insurer can track the case until closure.

BANKS SHOULD SET SIGHTS ON RELATIONSTo entice customers to buy more financial products and services, financial services companies need to focus on improving their relationship strategies, according to Gartner Inc., a research firm headquartered in Stamford, Conn.

ISTREAM TO INCLUDE NEW FUNCTIONALITYWhitehill Technologies Inc., Moncton, New Brunswick, announced new functionality in the IStream document automation suite, including IStream Publisher and IStream Document Manager. The IStream suite is designed to enable business users to create 'model documents' that control the language, layout and look of complex files, such as policies and contracts. IStream can be used to create and control virtually any kind of insurance document, from contracts to welcome kits to group booklets. New functionality includes add-ins for Microsoft Word and Adobe Reader, letting users create complex documents in a familiar, easy-to-use, interactive environment. As data or standard wordings change, users can automatically update their documents to reflect those changes. Leveraging industry-standard applications gives insurers the power to create and update documents easily as part of their normal processes.

The founders of Boston-based Homesite Insurance Group came together nearly a decade ago to create a progressive homeowners insurance company. In the quest to make their dream real, they got some help from software that links risk to geography.Today, Homesite sells in 43 states, and its underwriters evaluate the risk associated with each potential policyholder's address, says one of the founders, Manuel Rios, who now serves as Homesite vice president and chief underwriter. They do it with GeoStan geocoding technology from Group 1 Software Inc., a Pitney Bowes Co. in Lanham, Md.

An accident or catastrophe brings the moment of truth between a carrier and a policyholder. All too often, it's the only interaction between the two parties. The result is a relationship vulnerable to unwanted surprises.For example, a policyholder suffering a loss because of a fire may find a policy failed to cover enough of the current value of the property to make it whole again. Years of appreciation as well room additions and remodeling may not have been updated in the policy.

XL GLOBAL TO USE INTERCEPT TO MANAGE PROCESSESStamford, Conn.-based XL Global Services Inc., a part of the XL Capital Ltd. group of companies, will use Intercept Studio, a flagship product from Baltimore-based AVIcode, to manage business processes worldwide.