Challenge

CCMSI is the nation’s largest independent third-party administrator (TPA), administering workers’ compensation and property & casualty selfinsurance programs.

CCMSI began examining payment alternatives to achieve more efficiency and flexibility while maintaining the high level of accountability its clients rely upon. The company was heavily dependent on checks, issuing more than 1.2 million annually. Its ACH capabilities were limited and confined to manual processes. 

CCMSI sought the ability to manage payment preferences, as well as real-time access to payment data. Other criteria included:

• Virtual card acceptance rates
• Funding options – pre versus post settlement
• Opt-out approval for providers (vs. opt-in or portals)
• Data in recon file and payer portal
• Knowledge of industry

At the top of the company’s criteria was the ability to provide a payment solution that could deliver one system of record regardless of payment type.

The fact that CCMSI has a large number of custodial funding accounts complicates the company’s payment challenges. CCMSI has more than 800 separate bank accounts, each with special handling and funding considerations. It also operates under prompt pay regulations for a variety of providers with varying ability to receive and process check alternatives. This includes medical providers, body shops, contractors, attorneys and other vendors such as towing, transportation and translation.

“We’ve tried to quantify our time savings, but there’s just one word that sums up our results – priceless.”

John Kluth   –  CFO, CCMSI

Solution

In May 2014, CCMSI issued an RFP to eight potential vendors; one of which was InsurCard, a strategic partner with Optum Financial, narrowing the finalists down to three. In December 2014, a multidisciplinary committee chose the InsurCard/Optum Financial payment solution for their payment solution.

Optum Financial’s payment solution incorporates sophisticated payment preferencing that helps ensure payees receive the type of payment they want.

Optum Financial’s ability to deliver payments via check, ACH or virtual card allowed CCMSI to pay its payees faster with a level of payment diversity that was previously unavailable. This, coupled with Optum Financial’s unique payment preferencing which maximizes electronic payment adoption, led to animmediate increase in CCMSI customer satisfaction. 

With Optum Financial, CCMSI has converted 45% of their payments to electronic payments — providing substantial savings in both time and money. 

Since the Optum Financial implementation, CCMSI has been able to do more with less. The single system of record, availability of daily reconciliation reports and robust client portal have allowed CCMSI to continue to grow 4-8% per year without having to add additional resources. And the CCMSI team now has more time to focus on other projects, allowing them to keep up with the growing demands in their business.

Another benefit of the Optum Financial partnership is the level of customer service that CCMSI receives from the Optum Financial team in Account Management and the Customer Support Center. “This has been a partnership that continues to evolve. Despite competing priorities and fluctuating demands that naturally arise within any business, the Optum Financial team consistently delivers for us, no matter what the need,” says Kluth. 

Optum Financial’s award winning Customer Support Center seamlessly addresses CCMSI payees’ needs via a dedicated toll-free number, answering payment questions and providing an extra level of support that the CCMSI team has found invaluable. And managing client needs is just one piece of the complex payment equation; Optum Financial allows CCMSI to more easily manage its internal system and processes with ongoing account support, reports and data visibility through the portal that Optum Financial provides as a standard part of its services. 

“We knew that in order to continue our strong growth we would need to revamp our approach to payments. With Optum Financial, we have a scalable solution that delivers high levels of customer satisfaction and measurable savings.”

John Kluth   –  CFO, CCMSI