“The Paid-for Option, Bending Back the Healthcare Cost Curve” Released

“The Paid-for Option, Bending Back the Healthcare Cost Curve” by OpenConnect CEO Edward M.L. Peters, was successfully launched at AHIP Fall Forum Conference in Chicago last week. Peters had previously discussed the ideas behind “The Paid-for Option” on Federal News Radio, as well as in the Financial Times (London) and at conferences on both sides of the Atlantic. Preview editions have also been selectively provided to a number of prominent US Senators resulting in immediate follow-up meetings on Capitol Hill.

“‘The Paid for Option’ is about achieving results,” said Edward M.L. Peters. “The documented ‘waste baskets’ of behavioral, clinical and operational inefficiencies that have been identified in recent studies amount to a trillion dollars, or more, per year. The dramatic results achieved by our customers who focus on operational cost improvement and quality, can serve as proof points for a practical, real-world, and proven solution to bend back the cost curve in nearly all segments of the US Healthcare system.”

Through business process discovery and analytics, OpenConnect Comprehend enables executives to make the quick and incremental improvements that will increase process efficiency, improve employee productivity, and reduce cost. A case in point was examined at the “Achieving Sustainable Cost Reduction in Healthcare” symposium sponsored by OpenConnect at AHIP’s Fall Forum. The session spotlighted the efforts of Chris Maier, V.P., Claims, Enrollment & Billing Operations, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Gerda Verheyden, Care Process Manager, Gasthuis Zuster Antwepen Hospitals, Belgium, that have resulted in significant (and sustained) cost reductions and efficiency improvements through the implementation of process analytics.

“Having Chris Maier and Gerda Verheyden present at the conference provided an extraordinary opportunity to see our proposed solution in action. The fact that they represented major efforts on both the payer side as well as the clinical side provided a valuable lesson in how we can bring in cost reductions and improve quality and service,” concluded Mr. Peters.

“‘The Paid-for Option’ can have a critical impact on the current Healthcare Reform debate in Congress. The House and Senate provisions of the current Healthcare legislation have various funding alternatives, such as the $500 billion in Medicare cuts that have already been approved in the House version. Would it not make more sense to use the money generated from the successful implementation of ‘The Paid-for Option’ to cover such expenditures (and spare Medicare patients from the trauma that might result from such cuts)? ‘The Paid-for Option’ solution is a tried-and-true innovative methodology to improve operational efficiency while driving down costs. The dramatic results achieved by OpenConnect customers serve as proof points for the solution.”

An expanded version of “The Paid-for Option” is being readied for a spring 2010 release. The book details how OpenConnect has updated the techniques and methodologies of scientific management that have revolutionized the manufacturing sector over the last century – and applied it to the Service Sector, specifically ”white collar” activities in the areas that deal with "knowledge" and "information" workers. This allows organizations to gather source data about the work that actually occurs and make improvements based on facts rather than rules-of-thumb, hunches and best-guesses. The end result is to arrive at dramatic increases in productivity, efficiency – and quality typically resulting is cost savings equal to 25% to 50% of the original budget.

The book also examines the manner in which Comprehend passively captures information about existing business processes. Comprehend examines all of the data and creates a process model from the "bottom-up" showing a true picture of process execution. The process map is fully quantified to show information such as how often different process branches are used, how long they take, and the like.

Since Comprehend captures the workflow completely, it can filter and analyze any attribute of process execution. In fact, it can filter and query the data based on any set of the thousands of attributes that describe specific processes. Using advanced process analytics, Comprehend examines processes, looking for groups of similar activity. Discovering these "islands" leads to the identification of process inefficiencies, which in-turn can lead to the quick, low risk process improvements.

“The Paid-for Option” will be available in both hardcover and paperback edition in March 2010. For advanced ordering, please contact TrendTopper Publications at 925.367.7557 or send an email to paidforoption@oc.com.

About OpenConnect

OpenConnect business process discovery and analytics solutions deliver event-driven intelligence to automatically discover workforce, process and customer variations that hinder operational efficiency. Armed with this information, executives can make the quick and incremental improvements that will increase process efficiency, improve employee productivity, reduce cost, and raise profitability. With a rich history of developing innovative technology, OpenConnect's products are distributed in more than 60 countries and used by more than 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, visit OpenConnect at www.oc.com.