Learn How to Harness The Power of Digital Transformation to Elevate Your TPA Operations
TPAs operate in a highly competitive landscape, with many offering the same administrative services, making differentiation is critical. In recent years, many TPAs have embraced digital transformation to help them gain a leg up on their competitors.
What is Digital Transformation for TPAs?
This process involves using digital technology to enhance efficiency, streamline processes, and improve customer experience. With new TPA management system solutions, TPAs can automate and improve key areas such as communication, invoicing, data analytics, and benefits administration.
Leaning into new digital tools helps TPAs improve operational efficiency, reduce manual labor, decrease errors, and improve outcomes for clients and participants. Below we have outlined how TPAs can adopt these tools to scale their business and stay competitive.
Communications: Enhancing Engagement and Efficiency
Regular communication is key for managing client relationships and improving engagement. In fact, many brokers cite effective client communication as a top factor in client satisfaction and retention. However, sending regular communications can often be deprioritized in favor of other tasks. This can lead to decreased engagement and a potential for fewer renewals. Fortunately, digital communication solutions are making it easier to balance regular updates with existing tasks.
TPA Stream Communications helps you manage a multitude of tasks, such as:
- Setting up automated renewal alerts and notifications
- Implementing data-driven segmentation
- Creating standardized yet flexible templates
- Automating compliance tracking and reporting
- Providing self-service options for employers and participants
- And more
Now, you can automatically send renewal notifications for HSAs, HRAs, FSAs, LSAs, and COBRA plans. Just simply create data segments using our powerful software, create an email in our easy-to-use editor, and hit send. From there, you’re easily able to automate compliance tracking and reporting and make it easier for your clients to pay online. Overall, you’ll streamline the entire process, freeing up your workforce to tackle more time-consuming tasks.
Want to learn more about automating employer benefit renewals with TPA Stream Communications? Read our in-depth blog here.
Invoicing: Streamlining Billing Processes for Accuracy and Speed
When you generate invoices manually, you’re not getting every penny you could for rendered services. Many of our clients say they rarely felt 100% certain manual invoices included all services rendered and their calculations were accurate. They were juggling the manual work of dealing with WEX Health or Alegeus to determine participant volumes and work performed, running calculations based on broker requirements and the nuanced, complex agreed-to terms they used to win the contract. All these manual individual calculations can introduce errors. That’s why many TPAs are turning to automated invoicing solutions.
A consolidated invoicing system is the easiest way to improve operational efficiency and margins. One combined, consolidated invoice can include CDH administration fees, COBRA administration fees, enrollments and QEs, reimbursements, account contributions, and any other products and services you want to include. Now, you don’t have to send 5 or 6 invoices each billing cycle. One single invoice simplifies payments and ensures the items can be easily managed.
Not only does TPA Stream Consolidated Invoicing help improve cash flow, but it also reduces the amount of manual labor your team has to complete. For example, before implementing our software, Rocky Mountain Reserve had 12 employees working 30-35 hours just to send out invoices. And each month, the team spent 10-20 hours fixing errors, answering questions, and reissuing invoices. However, after implementing our software, the team was reduced to two people working 2 to 3 hours. With our TPA management system, you could also experience operational improvements like this.
Consolidated invoicing is your gateway to reduced errors and improved cash flow. Learn more from our in-depth blog.
Business Intelligence/Data: Leveraging Analytics for Informed Decision-Making
Analytics and data are the next core elements of successful digital transformation. With the right information, TPAs can optimize operations, forecast client needs, and refine benefits offerings, all of which feed back into improved communication and service.
Throughout the health data life cycle, information about people and their benefits activity is being collected. But if that information doesn’t get into the right hands, those groups can’t hope to truly understand how employee benefits data should guide their next steps.
For example, employers review benefits programs annually to learn what offerings are the most popular and unpopular, how often they’re used and unused, and what the reasons behind both might be. Without an automated software solution, there is little hope of capturing that information efficiently and accurately. Without accurate information, discovering what their next best choice should be for the following year’s benefits programs will be next to impossible.
TPAs can also use this data to improve internal processes by tracking key metrics like EOB processing times and more. Using data, both TPAs and employers can automate reporting to offer real-time insights, which enhances decision-making, drives business decisions, improves relationships, and streamlines internal processes.
Better data leads to better growth for TPAs. Get more details from our in-depth blog.
Automating Benefits Administration: Simplifying and Scaling Operations
Your service matters — but are you doing it as effectively as possible? Automating benefits administration allows TPAs to scale efficiently while reducing errors and increasing client satisfaction.
While there are a multitude of tasks a TPA management system can automate, let’s focus on claims or EOB processing as an example. A TPA’s EOB processing service ensures that plan participants get reimbursed for medical claims in a timely fashion — especially during crunch times at the end of the year. At TPA Stream, we’ve built an industry-leading EOB automation platform that not only streamlines the process, but also extends its usefulness into numerous other areas. Our platform uses plan participants’ own insurance logins to get the information you need immediately, process it, and route it into your own benefits administration system. This speeds up your operations and allows you to more effectively serve your clients.
Of course, there are other tasks you can automate within the benefits administration system. As a whole, you’ll reduce inefficiencies in claims management and improve client and participant satisfaction with faster processing times. Your team will be less overwhelmed, which allows you to scale operations and manage larger client bases.
Interested to learn more about claims harvesting and how it can help you scale operations? Read our in-depth blog here.
Learn How Our TPA Management System Can Help You
Digital transformation is essential for TPAs looking to stay competitive and efficient in a rapidly evolving industry. By automating key areas like communications, invoicing, business intelligence, and business administration, TPAs can streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve client outcomes. Overall, each component of digital transformation reinforces others, which creates a more efficient, scalable, and profitable business model. If you’re ready to learn what TPA Stream’s solutions can do for you, reach out to our team today.