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Dynamic publishing: a competitive advantage today --- an essential tool tomorrow

Merrill Corporation

02/05/2018

Medicare Advantage plans experience the annual pain of ANOC and EOC document publishing. This challenge will only grow more significant and more costly as the overall Medicare population swells dramatically in the coming decades and more complicated as electronic delivery is introduced to some of the document types. Leveraging an advanced, dynamic publishing platform can immediately ease this burden, with impacts that will continue to grow year-over-year. Health plans can significantly reduce the internal burden and cost of this process, transforming human-driven workflows into intelligent, data-driven processes, enabling streamlined, non-linear review cycles, and mitigating the risk of costly errors and delivery issues. This forward-thinking technology provides a competitive advantage today — empowering a health insurance organization to redeploy staff and funds toward other critical growth initiatives — and is an essential tool for driving growth and ensuring prosperity in an increasingly competitive landscape.

 

 

Health plans can reduce the internal burden and cost, transforming human-driven workflows into intelligent, data-driven processes.

 

 

AN EMERGING SOLUTION: INTELLIGENT DYNAMIC PUBLISHING 
A ground-breaking solution is emerging that effectively accomplishes the highly valued goal of reducing review cycles while mitigating the risk of errors. This comprehensive solution, Merrill Connect Dynamic Publishing Platform, leverages forward-thinking technology to enable health insurance organizations to work smarter, not harder. Merrill’s intelligent system automates model document creation, streamlines editing and review, and drives significant savings by dramatically reducing internal staffing costs for the annual ANOC and EOC creation process. It also incorporates print and electronic delivery and ensures documents are compliant with Section 508.


 

KEY ELEMENTS OF AN INTELLIGENT DYNAMIC PUBLISHING SOLUTION 

True partnership with consultative experts 
To go beyond the shortcomings of existing consultative approaches, Merrill’s in-house health insurance experts establish a true, ongoing partnership with our clients. These dedicated consultants work to understand an insurer’s plan complexities and preferences, complementing their CMS expertise with client-specific, in-depth knowledge. 

Rule-based logic for intelligent model document creation 
Advanced, rule-based logic tools empower Merrill to transfer deep CMS expertise and client-specific, in-depth knowledge to an intelligent system that knows an insurer’s unique plans and preferences. The system draws on a library of CMS model document structures and stored client data values, incorporating year-over-year changes and enabling quick adaptation to annual CMS changes — with minimal client involvement. 

Dramatic internal time savings from simplified, non-linear review cycle 
Our solution enables a non-linear review cycle that significantly speeds the proofing process. Multiple parties can review model documents simultaneously, with edits and comments centrally tracked. A single project manager can aggregate edits for the next round of reviews. Clear reporting of year-over-year changes makes individual review quick and easy, eliminating the need to painstakingly review every word of a largely static document. This simplified, non-linear review can drive significant internal time savings that grow exponentially based on the number of reviewing parties within a health insurance organization.

Forward-thinking dynamic publishing technology 
Building on the foundation of a consultative partnership and the simplified model document creation process, forward-thinking dynamic publishing technology combines CMS model language with web-based plan data management to generate real-time ANOC and EOC documents with accuracy and speed. 
This technology aggregates all data from Plan Benefit Package (PBP), bid submissions, benefit grids, Summary of Benefits documents and other key resources, and uses this data to drive the creation of each personalized document, populating changes accurately in the correct location. The system stores and utilizes all data fields to easily manage changes year after year.  

 


AN INTELLIGENT DOCUMENT CREATION PROCESS 

The Merrill Connect Dynamic Publishing Solution drives efficiency and accuracy at every step of the ANOC and EOC process.

Model documents generated faster, with minimal internal staff involvement
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Fewer review cycles, faster review process resulting in lower staffing costs
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Data-driven document personalization mitigates errors & associated costs
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Plan data management yields year-over-year efficiency gains 

 


POWERFUL BUSINESS IMPACTS OF INTELLIGENT DYNAMIC PUBLISHING 

Model document creation: Internal burden minimized, excessive templates eliminated, first proofs delivered faster 
A true consultative partnership bridges the gap between specialized CMS and client-specific knowledge. Internal staff no longer have the burden of deciphering subtle annual CMS changes. Just as important, they also no longer spend significant time coaching consultants on the complexities of their plans and preferences. Merrill does the heavy lifting of getting to know a client’s plans. Then, with just a few simple questions to internal staff, Merrill leverages rule-based logic to create an intelligent system that intuitively maps client plan data onto CMS model documents. Web-based plan data management incorporates year-over-year changes using stored data values. This reduces the total number of templates and delivers first proofs for internal review faster — as much as a month earlier — easing the time crunch of this hectic season. 

 


CASE STUDY 

Dynamic Publishing 
A large health insurance organization recently deployed the Merrill Connect Dynamic Publishing solution to manage its ANOC and EOC processes. The organization reports several definitive first-year impacts, including:

  • Model document templates available for review a full month earlier
  • Fewer overall staff involved in document review process 
  • Internal review cycles cut in half 
  • Document errors effectively eliminated 
  • Cost savings over $1 million due to streamlined review and reduced internal staff involvement

 

 

Dynamic publishing empowers a health insurance organization to truly achieve more, in less time, at a lower cost. 

 

A simplified, centrally managed review process also mitigates the risk of missed edits and version confusion, ensuring accurate creation of model documents. Data-driven dynamic publishing creates each individual plan document with exceptional accuracy, instantly mapping individual plan data into the approved ANOC and EOC model document templates. This eliminates the risk of document errors and their related costs. 

 

Drives measurable savings across the organization — ROI that grows year-over-year 
The advantages of Merrill Connect Dynamic Publishing delivers significant, measurable time and cost savings throughout the ANOC and EOC creation process. Early adopters of dynamic publishing report savings of more than $1 million in the first year alone, thanks to a shortened review cycle that dramatically reduces internal staffing costs. This innovative solution does not merely divide the workload among already overburdened staff members — it leverages forward-thinking technology to replace human-driven workflows with intelligent, data-driven processes. The end result is significant cost savings over traditional approaches. This creates a lasting foundation for ROI that grows year-over-year. Rule-based logic of the intelligent system continually streamlines model document creation and review following year-one consultative set-up. First proofs come sooner. Reviews go faster. Savings increase. 
With Merrill Corporation’s market-leading experience and expertise we keep you ahead of the latest regulations and requirements and get you to market faster and more cost-effectively, with complete accuracy and the ability to scale for growth.  Our innovative single source platform, Merrill Connect facilities seamless transitions from print to electronic communications allowing you to leverage multi-channel solutions as regulations, markets and your members evolve.  

See how much Merrill can save you with our EOC calculator. Click Here to Calculate Savings and learn more.