CLIFTON, N.J., June 10, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sutherland Healthcare Solutions, a subsidiary of Sutherland Global Services, announced two new consumerism solutions to help healthcare payers target member renewals and manage premium payment delinquency communications.
The rapid growth in the individual insurance market brought about by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made having an effective renewal strategy more important than ever. Due to the high costs of acquiring members through direct sales, a health plan's performance on member retention can create a significant competitive advantage. Sutherland's solution helps payers create targeted renewal campaigns through sophisticated analytics and outreach that optimize renewal efforts and deliver results. This solution is automated, highly scalable, and capable of quickly going live to accommodate the relatively short open enrollment (OE) period for 2016.
Another challenge payers must master is complex communications with members and their providers during extended "grace periods" for premium delinquency. The ACA imposes a 90-day grace period for plan members who are receiving premium tax subsidies, but are late in paying their share of monthly premiums. Payers selling plans through public health insurance exchanges (HIXs) face an especially challenging problem in tracking and communicating with a variety of stakeholders when subsidized members become delinquent in their premium payments. With Sutherland's consumerism solution, payers can segment the delinquent members by their reasons for late payment (and other characteristics), enabling targeted outreach to help delinquent members either reinstate coverage or dis-enroll. The solution then creates targeted communications to select providers, alerting them that the member is in the grace period. This enables plans to work with providers to manage their financial exposure and increase premium collection.
"Health insurers face a new type of challenge with the direct-to-consumer model that is growing by leaps and bounds," said Chief Executive Officer Thomas Laur. "We've been able to create a consumerism solution that leverages the vast customer lifecycle management capabilities and best practices we deliver in other mature direct-to-consumer markets through our parent company, Sutherland Global Services."
"Annual renewals and monthly collections differ radically from group to individual insurance," observes Jon Kingsdale, Managing Director of Wakely Consulting Group. "They are vitally important, but with all the other implementation challenges that health plans face under the ACA, they need efficient and effective outsourcing solutions."
Sutherland recently created two white papers on targeting annual renewals and managing payment delinquency communications to help further explain these complex situations. For more information on Sutherland's consumerism solutions, you can contact Enrique Balaguer at healthcare@sutherlandglobal.com.
About Sutherland Healthcare Solutions
Sutherland Healthcare Solutions is a subsidiary of Sutherland Global Services, a global provider of business process and technology management services. Headquartered in Clifton, New Jersey, Sutherland Healthcare Solutions is a leading provider of consulting, business process outsourcing (BPO), information technology outsourcing (ITO), and analytics solutions to the entire healthcare ecosystem. Sutherland Healthcare Solutions has 3,500 dedicated employees in 10+ global sites delivering customized and scalable solutions including contact center, coding, revenue cycle management, healthcare IT, provider data management, experience consulting, and population and payment solutions. For more information, visit www.sutherlandhealthcare.com.