PR - Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Renews EDS Contract

EDS and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ) today announced the two companies have renewed their 20-year relationship. The five-year agreement for the MetaVance Administration and Finance System will allow BCBSAZ to continue to meet industry mandate terms and improve claims processing accuracy and speed, ultimately lowering costs and improving customer satisfaction for its providers and members. Financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.

Since signing the original agreement in 1987, the companies have worked together to consolidate BCBSAZ’s multiple claims processing platforms onto MetaVance and integrate processes for HIPAA compliance, among other milestones. Today, MetaVance processes an average of 11 million claims per year for BCBSAZ.

“Reaching the highest customer satisfaction levels while reducing operating costs is one of our top operational and strategic priorities at BCBSAZ. Continuing to use MetaVance is a key component to delivering on this priority,” said Elizabeth Messina, senior vice president and CIO for BCBSAZ. “We have and continue to look to EDS for their IT and industry expertise.”

With this agreement, EDS will continue to deliver existing services, which include managing and enhancing MetaVance and hosting the software application at the EDS data center in Sacramento, California. As one of the first EDS clients to adopt MetaVance, the BCBSAZ team has suggested numerous architectural improvements in the claims processing software in use today.

EDS notes that MetaVance is a scalable software product used to automate core administrative processes such as enrollment, member eligibility and claims processing for healthcare payers with multiple companies, lines of business and products such as indemnity, preferred provider organizations and health maintenance organizations. MetaVance is based on a flexible, service-oriented architecture and is designed for payers looking to automate processes such as enrollment, call tracking and workflow. The member-centric model supports tailored benefits for both the member and their dependents and supports consumer-directed health plans.

EDS has served the healthcare industry for more than 40 years. Today, EDS touches more than 200 million lives daily and performs 2.4 billion healthcare transactions each year, including 1 billion in healthcare claims annually. EDS is the nation’s largest provider of Medicaid and Medicare process management services, administering $95 billion in benefits a year and serves as fiscal agent or principal IT provider for Medicaid in 22 states. With more than 7,000 professionals dedicated to supporting healthcare clients worldwide, EDS’ global healthcare experience spans payer, provider, government and life science communities.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is the largest Arizona-based health insurance company. The not-for-profit company was founded in 1939 and provides health insurance products, services or networks to more than 1.1 million individuals.