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| Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska chooses Benefitfocus.com for electronic enrollment and data exchange
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| Charleston, SC and Omaha, NE - May 16, 2005 - Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, a provider of health care coverage and benefit administration, announces the availability of new electronic enrollment and data exchange tools. Provided by Benefitfocus.com, Inc., BluesEnroll and eExchange offer select Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska (BCBSNE) customers timesaving and convenient benefit enrollment and administration solutions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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| "In addition to their knowledge of the Blues, Benefitfocus’ one-to-many platform was a primary reason we selected them for electronic enrollment and data exchange," says Ken Dustin, Vice President of National and Government Accounts for BCBSNE. "Benefitfocus provides one platform for accepting membership information, manipulates the data and sends it to us in a consistent, HIPAA-compliant format that we can accept," he said.
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| "We are proud to add Nebraska to our growing list of Blue Cross Blue Shield partners," says Shawn Jenkins, President and CEO of Benefitfocus.com. "Currently Benefitfocus’ list of clients insures over 12.5 million members, and we serve more Blue plans than any other electronic enrollment provider."
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| Designed for groups with existing Payroll or Human Resources systems, Benefitfocus eExchange will provide the data exchange solution to BCBSNE’s large self-funded groups. eExchange simplifies Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) by eliminating the pain of moving data between systems.
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| Crete Carrier Corporation, a national trucking firm based out of Lincoln, Nebraska, will go live with Benefitfocus eExchange on June 1 with 5,300 employees and 10,700 lives.
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| Additionally, BCBSNE will use BluesEnroll for its insured groups and expects to begin rollout to those with 50 or more employees this year.
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| Powered by Benefitfocus, BluesEnroll provides a Web-based application for benefit enrollment and administration as well as data exchange services. BluesEnroll reduces errors and the manual intervention inherent with a paper-based system. Information is entered electronically and exchanged with multiple systems.
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| BluesEnroll provides a rich set of tools and capabilities for benefit coordinators, administrators and payroll staff. It allows them to exchange enrollment and eligibility information at the click of a button. Employees and their family members can use BluesEnroll to gather information about their benefits, make life event changes (such as adding dependents) and obtain confirmation of their benefit information.
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| "Benefitfocus has achieved 100 percent adoption in other markets, and our average is 65 percent to 85 percent adoption within 12 to 18 months," adds Jenkins. Global IT analyst Gartner, Inc. concluded in a 2004 report that healthcare payer clients, on average, experience less than a 10 percent adoption rate for Web-based initiatives. "Healthcare payers are now footing the bills for old and new customer service channels, rather than leveraging the Web channel to reduce costs and improve customer service."
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| "We have the technology, the willpower and the market adoption plan to get the message out to groups in a way they can consume it," explains Jenkins. "And we help all of our carriers get it into the marketing and sales channel. We’ve built technology and services that will work for almost any type of business: construction companies, grocery stores, hotels, you name it. Our implementation of Web-based software for desk-top computers and kiosks gets the product to 80 percent of the workforce, even those that don’t sit in front of a computer every day."
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About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus.com, Inc. (Benefitfocus) is a leading provider of benefits administration software and services, offering employees and employers access to all benefits and human resource information securely over the Internet. Linking this data to payroll vendors and benefit providers, Benefitfocus applications seamlessly exchange data, therefore reducing errors and costs associated with traditional paper-based forms. Benefitfocus applications are designed to make companies more efficient, cost-effective, and more focused on delivering actual benefits instead of spending time on undue paperwork.
The company is headquartered in Mount Pleasant, SC (Charleston), and has an established client base of over 8,000 corporate employers in all fifty states.
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About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, provides health care coverage or benefit administration to more than 560,000 people. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska is a not-for-profit mutual insurance company.
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