(Peyto Lake, Banff, Alberta. Photo credit: Tobias Alt.)

The Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan (ASEBP), has implemented the FINEOS Payment Component Solution. A customer of FINEOS Claims for over a decade, the Edmonton-based Health and Welfare Trust chose the payments solution after exploring implementations of Manitoba Public Insurance and the Manitoba Teachers’ Society.

ASEBP faced risks related to its reliance on obsolescent legacy systems’ processing of a mission-critical service that handled disability payments to their members and fed into the premium and reserve setting for the benefit plan, according to a FINEOS statement. It was essential that ASEBP replace the system with a reliable and modern payments component that integrated easily with their overall claims operation, according to the vendor.

In preparation for the initiative, ASEBP and FINEOS melded their project management methodologies to develop a hybrid approach. The parties established timelines and related milestones, with build-in status checks. They brought in subject matter experts, set budgets, laid out reporting and change request frameworks, and the project launched on July 4, 2013, with a delivery data set for June 1, 2014. The project was completed on time and under budget, despite the need to accommodate change requests, according to FINEOS. Accuracy of the FINEOS Payments component was confirmed with parallel running on the old system which showed a 100% success.

Immediate Process Management Gains

“We have realized gains in process management almost immediately,” comments Jennifer Carson, Executive Director, ASEBP. “It is our firm belief that our organization and our members whom we serve will benefit greatly from the move to the FINEOS solution. We have every confidence that this will serve us successfully for many years to come.”

“This project has enabled us to solidify relationships with both internal and external ASEBP resources and importantly with the FINEOS team with each having very strong mutual respect and appreciation for each member’s contribution,” Carson adds.

The FINEOS Payments component can be implemented stand-alone or as part of the FINEOS Product Suite, according to the vendor. It provides what the vendor characterizes as a comprehensive, configurable process for handling payments of all types, including processing everything from simple one-off payments to complex, long-tail payments that change over time. It has automated procedures for dealing with over-payments and under-payments and generates detailed audit trails of all financial movements. The vendor asserts that FINEOS Payments simplifies complex processes typically supported by multiple technologies, spreadsheets and desktop calculations bringing accuracy, reliability and speed. Its configurable calculations may be controlled centrally ensuring that new processes and limits are easily rolled out and automatically used in all cases, the vendor says.