March 2010 Newsletter

Multistate Healthcare Organization Enhances Collaboration

Challenge
Molina Healthcare, Inc. is a multistate managed care organization that arranges for the delivery of healthcare services to people eligible for Medicaid, Medicare, and other government-sponsored programs for people with low income. The organization currently serves 1.4 million members through health plan subsidiaries in nine states, and processes approximately 11 million claims annually. In addition to administering health plans, Molina Healthcare also operates 17 clinics in California and three in Virginia.

Like other managed care providers, Molina Healthcare seeks innovative approaches to make the most of limited government funding. “We are looking to technology to reduce administrative costs as well direct care delivery costs,” says Terry Bayer, chief operating officer, Molina Healthcare. “Collaboration plays an important role in both strategies.” The company sought collaboration solutions to address the following business challenges:

• Accelerating team performance: Molina is a centralized organization with nine subsidiaries throughout the country to serve members. “We needed a cost-effective way to for field operations to interact with corporate resources,” says Bayer.
• Delivering an excellent member experience: Government programs like Medicare and Medicaid require that participants like Molina meet strict contact center service levels, such as average call-handling time and speed to answer. Molina receives 250,000 to 300,000 calls each month in multiple contact centers.
• Containing costs: Reducing costs for travel and the contact center would free up funds for services that directly benefit members.

Solution
As the first step in its enterprise collaboration strategy, Molina Healthcare replaced separate private branch exchange (PBX) systems in each subsidiary with a shared Cisco Unified Communications Manager. “A common communications system helped us come together as a cohesive company with a common identity,” says Bayer. Since the Cisco Unified Communications platform was put in place, Molina has begun using it for advanced collaboration solutions such as Cisco TelePresence, Cisco Unified MeetingPlace, and Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise with Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal.

Executive Collaboration
Nexus, a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, helped plan and deploy 40 Cisco TelePresence systems in 15 different sites, completing the project in just 60 days. Molina uses Cisco TelePresence primarily for executive meetings. Very high video and audio quality reinforce the in-person experience for participants in up to 40 locations. “You walk in the door, press a button on the Cisco Unified IP Phone, and then it’s as if you’re face to face with people in other locations,” says Mitchell Germain, technical project manager, Molina Healthcare. “It couldn’t get any easier.” Cisco Advanced Services helped Molina integrate Cisco TelePresence into its business processes. “Cisco Advanced Services is a trusted advisor to Molina Healthcare and to me personally as CIO,” says Amir Desai, chief information officer for Molina Healthcare. “We value their insight as we make critical decisions.”

Desktop Collaboration
All employees use Cisco Unified Personal Communicator software on their PCs to access voice, video, instant messaging, web conferencing, voicemail, and presence information on a single interface. “Cisco Unified Personal Communicator gives us the flexibility to choose the best type of communications for the situation, whether that’s an instant message or a conference,” Germain says. For example, employees use Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for convenient desktop collaboration combining voice, video, and web sharing. When the IT department needed to resolve a server performance issue, a team member set up a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace session with personnel in three locations. Resolving the issue quickly helped Molina maintain business continuity.

Contact Center
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise routes calls from members and providers to the first available agent in any location in the country, reducing wait times and eliminating the need to staff each location for peak volume. With Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal, members and providers press telephone keys to hear certain types of information without an agent’s assistance. Approximately 20 percent of callers choose the self-service option. Agents use Cisco Agent Desktop to control calls, view caller information, and keep track of queue length. Supervisors use it to view real-time statistics, monitor and coach agents, and to break into, intercept, and record active agent calls. Managers and executives outside the contact center can use Cisco Web View to monitor key performance indicators.

Results

Enhanced Collaboration Across Multiple Sites
Molina’s chief operating officer credits Cisco TelePresence with bringing field operations closer to corporate resources. Previously, Molina’s nine subsidiary presidents joined a weekly phone call to share successes and challenges. Some employees had not previously met team members in other states. Now they meet face to face without travel, with Cisco TelePresence, helping to build relationships and team spirit. “The difference has been phenomenal,” Bayer says. “We have fewer meetings, and they’re shorter and more exciting because of the rich interaction. I get a much better picture of what's going on when I can look into the eyes of a health plan president.” Examples of how Molina has used Cisco TelePresence and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace include:

• Quickly developing an automated outbound campaign about flu prevention. “Educational campaigns can play a role in reducing flu incidence, keeping our members healthy while reducing costly emergency room visits,” says Desai.
• Standardizing business processes across the enterprise. “Learning a new process by interacting with the people managing the process is more effective than reading about it in an email or watching it on a non-interactive video,” Bayer says.
• Avoiding car trips for internal meetings. Employees from corporate headquarters and two nearby offices save time and fuel costs and reduce carbon emissions by meeting with Cisco collaboration tools. “As an enterprise, we've made a commitment to green activities,” Bayer says. “Whether our employees are 3000 or seven miles apart, we avoid the negative impact of travel by conducting meetings with Cisco TelePresence and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace.”
• Reducing recruiting costs. Job candidates can now visit the nearest Molina office for preliminary interviews, even if the interviewers are hundreds or thousands of miles away. The company limits its airfare expense for job candidates to those who have passed the initial interviews.

Increased Productivity
Cisco TelePresence and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace conferences are more efficient than voice-only conferences. “Meetings that typically took 60 to 90 minutes with a voice-only conference now take 30 to 45 minutes,” says Desai. “People are more fully engaged because they know that other participants can see them, so we get more done in less time.”

Decreased Travel Costs
Instead of flying 40 to 50 executives to headquarters for meetings, Molina now conducts the meetings with Cisco TelePresence. “With Cisco TelePresence, we are on track to reduce travel costs by 10 percent,” says Bayer.

Greater Business Agility
Cisco Collaboration Solutions have increased the speed of decision-making by connecting the right people with the right information, eliminating the lag time for email responses. For example, a business analyst and IT developer can use Cisco Unified Personal Communicator to quickly exchange information with instant messaging. If needed, they can just click to escalate to a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace session including video and web sharing.

Improved Member Experience
The ability to route calls to any location helps Molina provide an excellent caller experience, creating a competitive advantage. What’s more, shifting calls from agents to self-service has improved contact center performance metrics such as average speed to answer and average handle time. “Since implementing Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal, we have shifted 20 percent of contact center calls to self service,” says Desai. “Without it, we would have had to significantly increase our staffing levels.”

Next Steps
Molina plans to equip its clinics with Cisco HealthPresence, which combines state-of-the-art video, audio, and medical information so that a remote specialist can examine a patient. Members who previously were unable to access care will be able to receive care through Cisco HealthPresence. If a primary care physician needs to refer a patient in an underserved rural area to a specialist, Molina will be able to virtually bring the specialist into the office of the primary care doctor. “We need to look at the most cost-effective way to make healthcare available to people who would otherwise not have it,” Bayer says. “We are excited about the potential of Cisco HealthPresence to increase access to services and reduce healthcare costs.”

Would You Like Additional Information?
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