IBM Case Studies A US-based healthcare company gets ahead of a growing claims volume

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	A US-based healthcare company gets ahead of a growing claims volume IBM

A US-based healthcare company gets ahead of a growing claims volume

IBM

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries
Applicable Industries	Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions	Business Operation
Use Cases	Process Control & Optimization Root Cause Analysis & Diagnosis
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	The US-based healthcare company was facing a challenge of accommodating a growing volume of healthcare claims. The company's existing claims processing application was handling the current volume, but changes within the healthcare marketplace, particularly around government healthcare initiatives, were expected to drive up that volume. The technology manager within the organization anticipated the growing demands on the company’s claims processing systems and took action. He created a modernization strategy for the organization’s two IBM zEnterprise® EC12 servers running IBM CICS-based application workloads to improve application performance and help accommodate the growing claims volume. Read More
About Customer	The customer is a US-based company that provides a diverse portfolio of health and well-being services. It relies heavily on a claims processing application to support its operations. The company was facing a challenge of accommodating a growing volume of healthcare claims due to changes within the healthcare marketplace, particularly around government healthcare initiatives. The company's existing claims processing application was handling the current volume, but the company needed to optimize and modernize its application workloads on its IBM System z® servers to accommodate the expected increase in claims volume. Read More
Solution	The company worked with IBM to analyze its systems and create a roadmap of incremental enhancements, starting with simple, low-risk actions and progressing to more complex activities. The team used IBM software, including the IBM CICS Interdependency Analyzer for z/OS® and IBM CICS Performance Analyzer for z/OS applications, to better understand the company’s environment and obtain performance metrics. The roadmap began with low-risk activities, such as recompiling COBOL programs with the latest compiler and implementing CICS Thread Safety methods, and progressed to more complex solutions. These included using IBM CICSPlex® System Manager software for greater resiliency and using the rules decision tool to promote greater flexibility and business logic reuse. The IBM team also deployed IBM Operational Decision Manager software to help automate business rules processes. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries

Applicable Industries

Healthcare & Hospitals

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Process Control & Optimization

Root Cause Analysis & Diagnosis

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

The US-based healthcare company was facing a challenge of accommodating a growing volume of healthcare claims. The company's existing claims processing application was handling the current volume, but changes within the healthcare marketplace, particularly around government healthcare initiatives, were expected to drive up that volume. The technology manager within the organization anticipated the growing demands on the company’s claims processing systems and took action. He created a modernization strategy for the organization’s two IBM zEnterprise® EC12 servers running IBM CICS-based application workloads to improve application performance and help accommodate the growing claims volume.

About Customer

The customer is a US-based company that provides a diverse portfolio of health and well-being services. It relies heavily on a claims processing application to support its operations. The company was facing a challenge of accommodating a growing volume of healthcare claims due to changes within the healthcare marketplace, particularly around government healthcare initiatives. The company's existing claims processing application was handling the current volume, but the company needed to optimize and modernize its application workloads on its IBM System z® servers to accommodate the expected increase in claims volume.

Solution

The company worked with IBM to analyze its systems and create a roadmap of incremental enhancements, starting with simple, low-risk actions and progressing to more complex activities. The team used IBM software, including the IBM CICS Interdependency Analyzer for z/OS® and IBM CICS Performance Analyzer for z/OS applications, to better understand the company’s environment and obtain performance metrics. The roadmap began with low-risk activities, such as recompiling COBOL programs with the latest compiler and implementing CICS Thread Safety methods, and progressed to more complex solutions. These included using IBM CICSPlex® System Manager software for greater resiliency and using the rules decision tool to promote greater flexibility and business logic reuse. The IBM team also deployed IBM Operational Decision Manager software to help automate business rules processes.

Impact #1	The company improved CICS-based application performance by 10 – 20 percent.
Impact #2	The company reduced the cost of processing claims, positioning it to handle growing numbers of claims.
Impact #3	The company made its decision assets more reusable and empowered employees to create and update their own decision services, enhancing speed to market.

Impact #1

The company improved CICS-based application performance by 10 – 20 percent.

Impact #2

The company reduced the cost of processing claims, positioning it to handle growing numbers of claims.

Impact #3

The company made its decision assets more reusable and empowered employees to create and update their own decision services, enhancing speed to market.

Benefit #1	Improved CICS-based application performance by 10 – 20 percent.
Benefit #2	Reduced CICS CPU usage by approximately 10 – 20 percent.

Benefit #1

Improved CICS-based application performance by 10 – 20 percent.

Benefit #2

Reduced CICS CPU usage by approximately 10 – 20 percent.

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Overview

A US-based healthcare company gets ahead of a growing claims volume

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit