Old Mutual Healthcare migrates to new IT system
Old Mutual Healthcare embarked on the first phase of a project to migrate medical scheme member accounts to a new information technology platform that will enrich the service to members, doctors, hospitals, specialists and brokers.
Early in August this year, Old Mutual Healthcare announced to its members, brokers and medical service providers of the changeover to the new system and the transition of the accounts of members of the first two medical schemes, the Old Mutual Staff Medical Aid Fund and the Mutual & Federal Medical Aid Fund took place on 13 November 2006 as planned.
Nine other schemes administered by Old Mutual Healthcare will eventually be migrated to the new system. A total of about 170 000 medical scheme members and their beneficiaries stand to benefit from enhanced service levels and the additional functionality offered by the new system.
Around R275 million worth of transactions will take place on the system on a monthly basis once all ten schemes under the administration of Old Mutual Healthcare have been migrated to the new platform.
The new system uses up-to-date technology implemented by Old Mutual Healthcare's Information and Communications Technology Division and the technology company specialist software development shop, Neil Harvey & Associates, which has 28 years of proven experience in the healthcare industry.
Rigorous testing of the system and training of the staff were undertaken to ensure consistent improvement of the service while minimizing the disruption of services to members and service providers.
"We are pleased with our thorough research for a new system and, its subsequent implementation by a strong team which includes Old Mutual staff and our new partner, Neil Harvey and Asso ciates," says Nenzeni Adams-Duma, ICT Executive for Old Mutual Healthcare.
"Our focus is for our members and medical scheme clients to experience a marked difference in our service delivery through our technology enablement, " she says.
Due to the transition from the old to the new system, Old Mutual Healthcare stopped processing claims on the old system on 31 October 2006. Claims were processed and medical scheme refunds were resumed from Monday 13 November 2006 on the new system and our clients were made aware of this.
Adams-Duma says Old Mutual Healthcare has already trained a sufficient number of staff to ensure that claims processing and payment dates are met as scheduled.
