Concord Cloud Fax solves Wellmark’s workflow efficiency and data-capture dilemmas
As a major health-insurance provider for Iowa and South Dakota, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield has more than 2 million members to serve. That means thousands of documents with time- and data-sensitive information — upwards of 50,000 pages a week — being transmitted to and from its offices every day.
That data is vital to speedy, effective claims, membership, and health care operations, and the Wellmark team knows that patients and providers alike are waiting on their decisions. Thanks to Concord Technologies’ ability to easily create a custom solution that involves secure, trackable transmission, tailored workflows, and AI-driven document classification and data extraction, Wellmark can process its massive data stream more securely, efficiently, and affordably.
“A big focus for Wellmark is making health care better for our members, whether that’s individuals or groups. It’s something we’re especially focused on as we begin to provide new products and services,” says Thomas Leon, Director of Logistics. “Concord allows us to achieve our mission in a very cost-effective way.”
Cloud fax delivers on workflow speed and data security
Wellmark began working with Concord in 2020, and the relationship has grown over time. The insurer’s original goal was to replace a cobbled-together, homegrown fax and workflow solution that had become inefficient and increasingly unable to keep up with growing data-usage workflows and business needs.
“The bigger users of our fax systems are our provider stakeholders,” Leon explains. “They represent 60% to 70% of all faxes to and from us. These are about health insurance coverage for emergency treatments, hospital stays, preauthorization’s — decisions that people are waiting on. It is important that we have a reliable, high-end system that can deliver those very urgent faxes, and do so in a cost-effective manner we can rely on. To know we have a system in place that can handle this fax volume in a secure manner is tremendously important to us. To also know that system operates securely and at a lower cost to us is a real win-win.”
Concord also was able to address Wellmark’s desire for a staggered deployment. That’s because while Wellmark was eager to update and enhance its data processing, it also was cautious about doing too much, too fast. A well-planned, deliberate rollout of Concord Cloud Fax across departments eased concerns around adopting a new faxing system.
“We’re never going to be the first ones to leap into something new,” Leon says. “We take our time. We are focused on investing in our infrastructure to become as efficient as possible. Partnering with Concord Technologies is a great example of that. Not only did we become more efficient and find a better product, we also were able to eliminate some security issues we were seeing with other vendors. It was a natural fit for us.”
The installation of cloud fax services, and the subsequent engagement of Concord’s suite of NEXTSTEP features, produced further benefits in both operational costs and efficiency.
This ability to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to extract data and create specific workflow queues for such areas as claims adjudication, means raw faxes are now turned into living forms full of prepopulated data. That, in turn, results in fewer keystrokes, reduced errors, and faster processing, Leon says.
Ongoing development, support creates solid relationship
Now, as the relationship between Wellmark and Concord deepens, even more systems are being created by Concord to further enhance information processing. Those new solutions include improved, automated reporting that gives Wellmark administrators an easy and fast way to audit user access to fax documents.
Those systems will join dynamic smart forms, as well as enhanced extraction and validation processes, that empower users to move through submitted information and capture more data with fewer clicks. None of this would be possible without a solid, collaborative partnership between Concord and Wellmark.
“With Concord, we are comfortable and know our needs are understood, both in terms of how we operate internally, and what we need their team to provide,” Leon says.
“I am not a fax guy,” he adds. “I was asked to lead a project around this service that very few people in our company had dealt with and I was fully supported by Concord. We have a pretty complicated downstream process once data arrives, and when we’ve had issues on our side the Concord team assists us with problem-solving instead of saying, ‘Too bad, I can’t help you.’ We never get anything but a quality interaction and a solution to a problem that we created. They are true partners.”
Company
Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Industry
Insurance
Headquarters
Iowa
Website
www.wellmark.com
The Problem
Wellmark had an outdated, inefficient patchwork of fax-delivery systems that were slowing down information processing and not keeping up with modern security concerns.
The Solution
- Concord Cloud Fax replaced an existing in-house fax platform and dozens of standalone fax machines serviced by an outside vendor.
- The company will use Concord’s Email2Fax and Print2Fax for outbound transmissions, and Email2Fax and FaxAssist for inbound transmissions.
- Wellmark also continues to increase its use of Concord’s AI-driven data extraction and classification technologies for inbound data to further speed data delivery, streamline workflows and speed data processing.