When Group Health Inc. and HIP Health Plan merged to form Emblem Health in 2005, the result was the largest health insurer in New York state, with revenues of more than $7 billion a year. Together they produce over 85 unique provider directories yearly. This required that all provider information, including provider ID number, name, address, city, county, state, ZIP code, telephone number, area of specialization, handicapped accessibility, languages spoken, etc. be current. Keeping the information up to date and uniform (consistent abbreviations, duplications, missing data, changes to addresses and phone numbers) proved to be a huge challenge.

Enter Atlas Systems. We looked at the manual process of assembly, proofing, correcting and reproofing; labor-intensive and costly in man hours. This was a data management issue. We proposed a directory management system that would cleanse 90% of the data automatically; look for and correct inconsistencies in format and data, find duplications, check the viability of addresses, ZIP codes, and phone numbers against third party data and make corrections. Errors could be corrected automatically or referred to the appropriate person for action. The result is directory production that is accurate, costs less and takes less time to produce. Now when a directory is needed, an authorized agent enters the web-based Directory Portal, selects the directory and the application collects all the appropriate providers for that directory, creates page layouts in the correct style and creates a table of contents and an index by name, specialty and location.

The process that once took weeks or months now happens at the click of mouse. PDF files ready for print are produced within minutes. The overall savings are incalculable and delivery expectations during busy times of open enrollment are easily met.