Assurant Health Launches Consumer-Centric HSA Offering in Four Months

A Case Study for DST Health Solutions (DSTHS) Consumer-Directed Healthcare

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE: Assurant Health
In business since 1892, Assurant Health’s underwriting companies provide health insurance coverage for more than one million people nationwide. The companies’ products include individual medical, small group, short term and student health insurance products, as well as consumer-choice products such as Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) Plans.

Committed to consumer-directed healthcare, Assurant Health was the country’s first provider of an HSA and today is a national HAS market leader. Since 2004, the first year the accounts were available, Assurant Health reports that 37% of its new individual medical sales have been HSAs. As of the end of October 2005, it had received Individual Medical HSA applications to cover over 250,000 people.

Committed to providing ongoing flexibility and choices in health financing solutions as well as choice of providers, Assurant Health works with more than 200,000 independent agents in supporting their customers. With almost 3,000 employees, Assurant Health is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has operations offices in Minnesota, Idaho and Florida, as well as sales offices across the country.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE: Engaging the Consumer to Deliver on the Promise of HSAs
With healthcare costs continuing to rise, health plans and insurers nationwide have been forced to seek out innovative alternatives to complement traditional product portfolios. Assurant Health realized early on that the need to develop new solutions to help individuals and employers defray escalating costs, while giving consumers direct control of healthcare dollars was absolutely critical. Enter the HSA, which offers an innovative alternative to conventional health coverage and provides a vehicle for tax-advantaged savings that can be funded by individuals, employers and employees.

Building on their extensive experience with Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs – an early incarnation of HSAs), Assurant Health was able to enter the HSA market immediately. When HSAs became available to the American public on January 1, 2004, Assurant Health signed the country’s first HSA customer at 12:01 am. This, along with the important part the company played in shaping the legislation that made HSAs possible, positioned Assurant Health as an HSA and consumer-directed healthcare leader.

While Assurant Health entered the dynamic HSA market at its inception, the company quickly realized that to truly capitalize on the product’s potential and remain the market leader, improvements were needed to enhance their product’s value proposition. It was clear that providing account holders with convenient and integrated access to online decision support, powerful research tools and detailed account information was the key to a successful HSA offering. Assurant Health needed to further bolster its Web experience to increase consumer involvement and elevate awareness of HSA features and benefits.

“Assurant Health places a priority on providing consumers with the tools to manage their healthcare dollars with an online banking experience and health management resources,” said John W. Rownd, Assurant Health Director of Development, Individual Markets. “HSAs are important to Assurant Health, and we are committed to providing them to the individual and small employer marketplace.”

Realizing the criticality of not only enhancing their consumer engagement capabilities but also their technology infrastructure and overall integration as well, Assurant Health turned to DST Health Solutions (DSTHS).

THE SOLUTION: Tapping into the Experience of a Consumer-Directed Healthcare Market Leader
Supporting the nation’s earliest consumer-directed healthcare visionaries, DSTHS is the most experienced consumer-directed healthcare processor in the U.S., now processing claims for more than 300,000 consumer-directed healthcare lives. As a total solutions provider with extensive domain expertise, DSTHS offers HSA services that include consumer-directed healthcare member reimbursement processing, debit card and banking integration, and streamlined enrollment management integrated with engaging Web capabilities to facilitate consumer self-service and enable the direct management of healthcare dollars.

Assurant Health’s criteria for selecting a partner to help expand their HSA solution included the capability to offer rich product functionality, while at the same time having the ability to accommodate accelerated speed-to-market requirements. Assurant Health selected DSTHS to help strengthen its overall technical infrastructure, enhance its consumer web experience and provide a host of vital services that included:

• An integrated web presence for HSAs with the consumer at its core
• Market differentiating, member self-service functionality
• Key back-office fund management services that streamline member payment processes and effectively link Assurant Health to their HSA custodian, UMB Bank, n.a.
• Service for customers and brokers, as well as other essential call center support for HSA administration.

“We felt DSTHS provided the total package of system solutions and administrative capabilities to meet our strategic goals for HSA administration,” said Rownd. “DSTHS supplies Assurant Health with Web support to enable the online banking experience, as well as streamlined coordination with our banking partner and decision support software to help our insureds make more informed decisions about their healthcare.”

By relying on DSTHS to deliver consumer-directed healthcare software and business processing outsourcing services, Assurant Health was able to more effectively enhance their HSA product, while retaining the administration of their qualified high deductible insured product on their existing health administration platform. Assurant Health benefited from rapid speed to market as DSTHS delivered the fundamental infrastructure that efficiently supports HSA administration and facilitates consumer empowerment. The inherent flexibility afforded by DSTHS’ solution also enabled Assurant Health to maintain its own brand and personality within the overall design.

THE RESULTS: Delivering the Consumer-Centric HSA Offering to Market in Only Four Months
The deployment of the total solution was completed in less than four months, which was an aggressive timeline for both DSTHS and Assurant Health. The implementation kicked off in August of 2004, and Assurant Health’s enhanced HSA offering went live in mid-November, with complete implementation of all back-office functions, Web hosting and customer services provided by DSTHS. The delivery of these critical administration services by DSTHS complements Assurant Health’s HSA Tools web experience, providing account owners with the ability to manage account transactions with an integrated, secure Web site. HSA Tools also provides insureds with a debit card and checkbook as well as online health information, quality data and self-diagnostic tools via Subimo.

Following the introduction of HSA Tools, Assurant Health unveiled additional enhancements to the product in early 2005. DSTHS’ enhanced Web site functionality provides Assurant Health HSA owners with a conduit to invest in mutual funds, establish recurring automatic deposits from their checking or savings account into their HSA, order additional checks and debit cards and access detailed information on prescription drugs. HSA Tools enhancements address the growing trend of owners using their accounts as valuable retirement planning vehicles.

HSA Tools has increased access to health information online with the addition of Subimo’s PharmaAdvisor™. An integral piece of the HSA Tools Web site, PharmaAdvisor provides detailed pharmacy information on a wide range of medical conditions and allows users to learn more about treatments and compare available drugs. Users can manage their prescriptions by comparing costs, side effects, efficacy and dosage. PharmaAdvisor also
provides information on possible drug interaction with other medications, and will even create a customized list of questions consumers can ask their physicians.

DSTHS and Assurant Health agree that the complete implementation experience was an extremely positive and efficient one. From DSTHS’ perspective, the dedication of Assurant Health’s implementation team, focused commitment at the executive level and Assurant Health’s clear HSA vision enabled DSTHS to demonstrate its full range of capabilities, resulting in a resounding mutual success.

ABOUT ASSURANT HEALTH
Assurant Health has been in business since 1892. Assurant Health’s underwriting companies provide health insurance coverage for more than one million people nationwide. The companies’ primary products include individual medical, small group, short-term and student health insurance products, as well as non-insurance products and consumer-choice products such as Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangement Plans. With almost 3,000 employees, Assurant Health is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has operations offices in  Minnesota, Idaho and Florida, as well as sales offices across the country. Assurant Health is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by one or more of Assurant Health’s underwriting companies – Time Insurance Company, John Alden Life Insurance Company and Union Security Insurance Company.

The Assurant Health Web site is www.assuranthealth.com. Assurant Health is part of Assurant, a premier provider of specialized insurance products and related services in North America and selected other markets.

For more about DST Health Solutions, contact us at inforequests@dsthealthsolutions.com.