HP GIVES UNIVERA WNY DIVISION A HEALTHY SOLUTIONChallenges
Solution
Results
Univera Healthcare's mission statement is a simple one: "To improve the health and quality of life of our members and the communities we serve." However, as a health maintenance organization in today's competitive environment, successfully achieving that mission can be a challenge. Running clinical systems, claims processing, fee-for-service billing processes, physician groups and medical facilities are just a few of the business concerns Univera Healthcare faces each day. To cost-effectively and efficiently manage its Western New York (WNY) division, Univera turned to Hewlett-Packard Company for proven solutions. Your Doctor. Your Hospital. Your Pharmacy.Univera Healthcare's WNY division, formerly known in Western New York as HealthCarePlan, was established in 1976 as Western New York's first health maintenance organization (HMO). The Buffalo-based company has deep roots in local, state and national efforts to reform the delivery and financing of healthcare. State-wide, with its affiliates, Univera Healthcare has 580,000 members, 8,000 participating physicians, 3,000 employees and annual revenues totaling $1 billion. Leveraging a Legacy EnvironmentIn the early 1980s, as the managed healthcare industry blossomed, Univera Healthcare in WNY grew from a company with a small IBM system to one with a Digital VAX environment. Then they were introduced to the HP 9000 Enterprise Server, and the rest is history. In 1996, to better manage the claims process, Univera Healthcare's WNY division decided to scan claim forms rather than use personnel to handle the paper forms. The scanning was conducted by a Filenet system running on a HP 9000 K210 with an Oracle database. "Two years later, we signed a contract to licence the Erisco Facets claims processing system and had planned to move our claims processing in-house, away from a service bureau," explained Damian Faherty, the Univera Healthcare's WNY division Director of Systems and Operations. "We needed a much more flexible claims processing system that would permit us to set up various provider networks. And to handle the ever-changing business needs of setting up different programs and plans. The Erisco Facets system, with its Sybase database, had the flexibility to do that." Immediately after initiating the Erisco contract, Univera Healthcare's WNY division ordered a HP 9000 K450 server to run the Erisco training/development environment. "We bought two additional HP 9000 N4000 servers during '99 to host the Erisco reporting and production functions," said Faherty. "It was a time of significant growth for us. We also are adding our Syracuse-based operations onto these core platforms" HP's Prescription for GrowthSignificant growth is an understatement. The previous year, the Western New York division implemented a data warehouse effort."Since we'd been a Digital shop for so long, we performed an evaluation of Digital's data warehouse running their version of UNIX versus HP-UX 11.0. We ended up choosing one HP 9000 K520 because of the wide acceptance in market place of the HP and Oracle solution. Plus, we felt it is easier to recruit staff or contractors familiar with HP-UX 11.0. However, along with the data warehouse came an additional staging server, an HP 9000 R380, because we needed another machine to work alongside the HP data warehouse server." Finding the Perfect Storage SolutionWhile Univera Healthcare's WNY division expanded its number of HP-UX 11.0 servers, the company found its need for additional HP products grew as well. As part of its solution, they included an HP SureStore E Disk Array XP256 storage system. "We knew that the company would continue its heavy growth, so storage flexibility was key," said Faherty. "Plus, the data warehouse was rapidly consuming data like there was no tomorrow. We wanted to be in a position where we had very high uptime, reliability, redundancy and performance. We also wanted to be able to connect our critical boxes into a storage array. In our decision to go with the HP XP256, we liked the idea of using a single vendor. We have all this HP equipment and it was beneficial if any issues arose with performance or troubleshooting to have a single-vendor solution. Going along with that is the fact that we would have a single support contract with the same technicians servicing the hardware and the same level of service applied to both the servers and the storage." Making a Backup PlanAn equally important part of Univera Healthcare's HP solution for its WNY division was a unified backup strategy. "In two years, we grew from two UNIX servers to six, a few Microsoft Windows NT boxes to over 40. 17 of the bigger ones are HP Netservers models LC3, LH3, LH3r, LH4r with RAID storage running the pharmacy system, decision support and actuarial services, the remaining NT servers are HP Vectra desktops" said Faherty. "On the PC end, the company has nearly 850 HP PCs (150 Omnibook Laptops, 700 desktops). We also have 350 HP laser printers (2100, 4000, 4050, 5siMX, 8100DN, D640)." He continued, "One of the things we needed was a dual UNIX and NT backup solution. We already had HP OpenView OmniBack II from a few years prior and we were using it with a small single DLT drive. But, that wasn't big enough to handle the storage that we currently had. So we bought HP's largest DLT library, holding 588 tapes. HP helped calculate the backup time to make sure that we could do the backup in the night time window." HP Support Makes all the DifferenceRounding out Univera Healthcare's HP solution for the company's WNY division, the company chose HP's 7x24 hardware support, which combines HP's standard support package with enhanced access to HP support experts. Additionally, the WNY division will be using HP's Implementation Services to help move its data center. "We will be contracting with HP to move the HP equipment, and other miscellaneous equipment, all except the Digital equipment," commented Faherty. "We have to move it over a weekend and be back up and running on Monday, so there is no room for error. With HP, we know we will do the job successfully." HP a True PartnerIn the year since implementing their HP solution, Univera Healthcare's WNY division has been able to successfully meet its goals of cost-effectively and efficiently managing its systems. "The new claims system has infinitely more flexibility to configure and create products for the marketplace," noted Faherty. "From an IT perspective, the HP XP256 has given us the scalable growth path so we can confidently support the business. Throughout it all, HP has been a very good, very professional partner. Especially with the HP XP256 - we had excellent support. We were early adopters of the technology, so there was an element of risk involved. HP did everything they could to make sure our solution was all working properly and made us feel very reassured. It's comforting to know that you've selected a leader and that people understand that. A multi-region implementation of Erisco Facets will also be based on this equipment" "Our new claims system has infinitely more flexibility to configure and create products for the marketplace. From an IT perspective, the HP XP256 has given us the scalable growth path so we can confidently support the business. Throughout it all, HP has been a very good, very professional partner. HP did everything they could to make sure our solution was all working properly and made us feel very reassured. It's comforting to know that you've selected a leader and that people support that." -- Damian Faherty, Director of Systems and Operations Univera Healthcare WNY At-a-Glance: Company: Univera Healthcare (Corporate) Locations: Buffalo, Syracuse, Long Island; New York Founded: 1976 Employees: 3,000 1999 Revenues: $1 billion Telephone: (716) 847-1480 URL: www.univerahealthcare.org Main Products: Univera Healthcare is a private, not-for-profit health maintenance organization with over 580,000 members, offering point-of-service managed care plans across 28 counties in New York state. Technology Highlights
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