data collection and analysis: controlling health care costs

The Challenge

A health care cost containment consulting firm needed a rapid, ad-hoc way to report on how companies and insurers use their insurance dollars. Data had to be collected from multiple sources in varying formats, stored, normalized, and maintained. Some reports needed to be created that covered multiple, seemingly incompatible data sources.

The Solution

Simplexity worked with the data providers to create a claims data warehouse to track health related expenses, and provide the means to recommend appropriate wellness programs for employers. We created a set of data cube analysis tools to provide employers an understanding of where their dollars were being spent. We also worked with the consulting firm to architect and install the appropriate hardware and software infrastructure to support ongoing collection and reporting needs. Simplexity helped the consulting firm provide timely recommendations and reports, and we helped insurers, employers, and employees save money.

Lessons Learned

Information from multiple providers will always have inconsistencies in format and meaning. Identifying business, cost or service trends is extremely difficult when you have incomplete, time variable and changing content. Adequate time needs to be planned to understand the data, identify achievable changes in the source data and work with both providers and users to create a sustainable set of credible reports. Ongoing communications between the users and providers of the data can be difficult to schedule and sometimes needs interpretation. Developers need to understand how to facilitate communications among groups and attain achievable deliverables.

For more information about how Simplexity can help you today, please email or call Eric Hughes at 510/763.4488.

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