COLD Saves Growing Benefit Management Company From A Sea Of Paperwork

The patient - Express Scripts - was experiencing all the common symptoms. There were blockage of major communications arteries, stress and loss of productivity. It hadn't always been that way. Express Scripts' expanding business involved numerous facets of the healthcare industry. The organization provided services as a managed-care specialist, a full-service pharmacy, and a benefits-management company; future plans were to include vision care. In all, these businesses helped over 4,000 clients - including HMOs and PPOs, 48,000 pharmacies, and nearly 11,000,000 customers.

Microfiche: Only A Temporary Solution
However, as Express Scripts grew, its decision makers realized that the company was struggling with an explosion of paperwork and customer service demands. The strain was beginning to wear especially on the people in customer service. Overwhelmed with a growing maze of files, their ability to respond efficiently to customer inquiries was diminishing.

Although the company microfiched much of the paper generated, the labor-intensive microfiche retrieval process added to the problem, rather than relieving it. With over 200 customer calls per day, roughly 25% of which required research, the company needed more than a band-aid solution. The downtime resulting from delays in responding to customers was beginning to create a backlog of "open" cases. Finding a way to gain fast access to the right information during calls became a major priority for the company.

COLD Relieves Paperwork Pains
Finally, decision makers decided upon a solution that implemented COLD technology - Maximal Systems' MaxRetriever. MaxRetriever gave Express Scripts relief that was both instant and long lasting. Now, in a matter of seconds, billing personnel can bring the exact information they need right to their desktops. Customer relations representatives have reduced their stress levels as well as their time spent on research. Customers enjoy immediate answers to their questions. And the company has proactively resolved problems that would otherwise compound as the business continued to grow.

Company Quickly Earning Its ROI
Key applications - including reports, statements, and invoices that used to generate 110,000 pages every month - are now stored in MaxRetriever. Applications can be linked together, making retrieval of multiple documents as fast and easy as single documents. Finally, with the reduction of paper and microfiche, combined with the business profits from increased productivity and customer service efficiencies, MaxRetriever is quickly paying for itself. And, for a fast growing company like Express Scripts, nothing is as important as a healthy bottom line.