Photo of Simon Jones, J.P. Morgan, David Baxter, ACI Worldwide, Rick Noble, Jeff Hammer and Nate Sass, Anthem, Inc. and Chris Jameson, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Anthem, Inc. is one of the US leading health benefits companies with over US$84bn in annual revenue. Implementing a payment redesign that affects multiple source systems, departments, vendors and its affiliated health plan members is a massive undertaking. This is a major AR solution which addresses the individual consumer experience and consumer payment preferences.

Enhancing the consumer payment experience

The challenge

Anthem’s family of health plans bill employer groups monthly and generally receive payment via a cheque or an electronic funds transfer (EFT). Recently, due to the growing market of individual insurance policies with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act Exchanges, Anthem health plans needed to shift their focus to the individual consumer payment experience.

The solution

Anthem’s treasury department took a leadership role in a series of initiatives to address these issues. Anthem contracted with a third-party electronic payment vendor to respond.

With continued emphasis on improvement, Anthem launched the Consumer Payment Redesign project focused on the following objectives:

• Bring the Web Pay portal in-house to allow for single sign-on for payments at anthem.com
• Allow members to set up recurring payment by EFT or credit card on the Anthem website.
• Enhance the functionality and personalise information of each consumers’ payment and billing history and settings via the web.
• Add functionality to make one-time payments or set up recurring payments via a mobile application.
• Automate and speed the posting of payments made using the member’s bank portal through the use of electronic lockbox services.
• Allow for consumers to make payments via cash at common retail outlets (not yet complete).

Best practice and innovation

This new payment model demonstrates best practice, as it offers convenience, flexibility and personalisation for Anthem’s consumers while cutting costs, stabilising cash flows and increasing member retention and satisfaction for the family of health plans. Consumers demand convenience and several payment options. From 2002 to 2012, cheque volumes as a percentage of total payments by US consumers declined from 61% to 24% while online bill payments for the same period increased from 12% to 50% (source: 2012 Fiserv Billing Household Survey). Anthem not only recognised the shift in its business model towards consumers but also the rapid evolution of how consumers prefer to pay their bills.

“This achievement is a testament of the exceptional talent and hard work among our treasury and cash operations team,” said John Gallina, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Anthem.

Gallina concludes, “The treasury department, in collaboration with key business partners across Anthem, created an Accounts Receivable solution that enhances the consumer experience while driving business results and cost savings.”