Verisk Health Selected by MedBen for Risk Assessment Management and Reporting

January 1, 2011 / 3 min read

WALTHAM, Mass., November 15, 2010 – >Verisk Health announced today that MedBen has selected SightlinesTM Medical Intelligence to identify healthcare trends and cost drivers, facilitate benefit program design, improve health status, and reduce spending for its employer clients. Verisk Health is a global leader in identifying, analyzing, and predicting healthcare risk. MedBen is a Midwest leader in benefits management, specializing in finding creative solutions for today’s complex business environment.

“A primary challenge for employers today is improving health and productivity while reducing costs. To cut down on spending, however, requires timely visibility into a population’s health status and a clear understanding of the opportunities for clinical and financial improvements,” said Doug Freeman, president and chief executive officer at MedBen. “The Verisk Health solution will enable us to help our clients identify risks and develop strategies to reduce health risk and spending while maximizing the overall value of their benefit programs.”

Freeman added, “MedBen has always delivered high-quality comparative information to our clients. This relationship only enhances that commitment.”

MedBen will use Sightlines Medical Intelligence to analyze existing claims data to identify and report on quality and cost metrics. The web-native solution will support high-level medical and pharmacy spend analysis, identify disease prevalence, provide benchmarking capabilities, and pinpoint utilization and network issues. Predictive analytics and patient-level drill-down functionality will support outreach initiatives by identifying and targeting high-risk members in need of clinical interventions.

“We’ve reached a critical juncture in healthcare today, one that requires a true assessment and understanding of the underlying risk affecting employee populations,” said Steve Ober, MD, executive vice president at Verisk Health. “The old standby of simply understanding what happened won’t cut it anymore. To take action, our clients need to know what will happen and what they can do about it. Using Sightlines Medical Intelligence, MedBen can further help its clients take proactive action to manage health risk and implement effective wellness strategies to ultimately reduce spending.”

Sightlines Medical Intelligence is a predictive modeling and data analytics solution that enables organizations to understand and manage healthcare risk while also developing early interventions for mitigating that risk. The platform will enable MedBen to:

understand cost and utilization drivers
determine medical and pharmacy cost saving opportunities
identify gaps in care and disease burden
benchmark clinical, financial and utilization metrics
facilitate employer reporting

About Verisk Health
Verisk Health, a subsidiary of Verisk Analytics, leverages healthcare data to help businesses and governments understand their medical and financial risk for the purpose of managing costs and clinical outcomes more effectively. Through the combination of leading predictive science, a comprehensive evidence-based clinical engine, and advanced technology, we have created one of the most extensive independent risk-assessment and decision-analytics platforms in the healthcare industry. Our primary focus is to identify actionable strategies for managing healthcare costs and quality at both the individual and population levels. We consistently research, evaluate, and invest in our business to ensure that we remain leaders in our industry and provide the most efficient and effective solution for our clients.

About MedBen
A Midwest leader in benefits management, MedBen (a trade name for Medical Benefits Mutual Life Insurance Co. and subsidiaries Medical Benefits Administrators, Inc., and VisionPlus of America, Inc.) has administered health plans since 1938. Its group health services include medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and COBRA, HIPAA, and Medicare D administration. MedBen also offers a full range of consumer-driven health plans, including FSAs, HRAs, and high-deductible health plans tied to HSAs. Wraparound services, like worksite wellness and disease management, make these programs even more cost-effective. MedBen is proud to be one of the first benefit companies to achieve ISO 9001 Certification, an international quality distinction that demonstrates its commitment to performance and emphasis on the customer.

Release: Immediate

Contact:
Trish Tarantino (Verisk Health)
ttarantino@veriskhealth.com
781-693-3784