Insurers put new products to the testimplementation.

Product: Akonix L7 Compliance Manager
Company: Akonix Systems, Inc.
Web site: www.akonix.com

Akonix Systems, Inc., concerned with the effort to make public instant messaging (IM) safe, secure, and manageable for use in enterprise networks, has introduced Akonix L7 Compliance Manager, an instant messaging gateway that creates a complete public instant messaging compliance solution. The offering assures total adherence to Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC/NASD, and HIPAA compliance regulations for public IM.

Michael Chipperfield, CIO of San Diego-based PPMC, a management services organization that serves as a health insurance payer for 200,000 lives in Southern California, believes the solution will bring better security and compliance to HIPAA regulations for the healthcare industry. Security and patient confidentiality are high on the list of things to be focused on, he says. Dealing with physician offices and patients, there are a lot of different types of communication that can occur. Instant messaging is in use in our office internally, although not externally that we are aware of.

Being aware of what employees are doing with instant messaging is the big issue with HIPAA compliance and the exposure that insurers create by letting such messages go out over a nonsecure system. In taking a look at this issue and seeing our exposure to potential problems, Akonix has offered us a solution to close the door on that external communication we were unaware of and not approving, Chipperfield says.

PPMC found if it did not monitor IM, it could not create a policy around it. The Akonix product has allowed us to monitor all that traffic and thus come up with policies on how IM is going to be used.

IM traffic at PPMC wasnt just open, according to Chipperfield, it was open and unidentified. Done properly, IM benefits us because it is an easy way to communicate, whether its with doctors, patients, or internal management staff, he says. Compliance Manager means PPMC can offer its provider base the security aspect mandated by HIPAA as messages are monitored, encrypted, and passed along. Well be able to offer this as another path of communications, says Chipperfield.

HIPAA protects patient privacy and restricts healthcare organizations from transmitting patient-sensitive information, except under controlled circumstances. Similarly, SEC/NASD regulations and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act require financial service firms and large public companies, respectively, to manage all electronic communications including e-mail and IM. The new Compliance Manager supports the review and audit processes required in these organizations.

Built on the Akonix L7 Enterprise gateway, compliance features include the patent-pending Akonix L7 Enforcer. Compliance efforts rely on an organizations ability to capture all IM traffic. Akonix L7 Enforcer ensures compliance by instantly blocking any attempts to circumvent message capture. The Active Policy Enforcement approach prevents regulatory compliance violations from occurring, rather than simply logging the activity for review.

Akonix L7 Enterprise enables network administrators to log IM traffic in a searchable archive that satisfies compliance mandates. The Akonix Compliance Manager offers new compliance workflow features that ensure audit procedures are followed, while providing an accurate and historical record that reflects the compliance actions of the network administrator to the regulatory mandates. Akonix customers have the ability to appoint auditors and reviewers to search, review, annotate, and audit messages and IM conversations taking place on their networks. Compliance workflow capabilities include marking a message or group of messages as reviewed, reporting on the percentage of messages handled by an assigned reviewer, and limiting reviewer access to messages for groups or a specific employee.

Akonix L7 Compliance Manager was scheduled for general availability in mid-April and can be licensed, on a subscription basis, as an add-on product to the Akonix L7 Enterprise. Prices for Akonix L7 Enterprise start at $2,250 per year for up to 50 users. Prices for longer-termed subscriptions, larger installations, and advanced options are available from Akonix or its national reseller network.

Product: MarketProminence 2003.1
Company: Continuum Performance Systems
Web site: www.cps92.com

Continuum Performance Systems, a provider of government healthcare software, has re-leased MarketProminence 2003.1, its newest version of its sales, enrollment, and financial management software suite that allows healthcare companies with government contracts more control over receivables and enrollments.

One such user is HIP of New York, a health insurer with both commercial and government business. Pedro Villalaba, senior vice president of IT and CTO for HIP, says MarketProminence has been a valuable tool for his company, saving the insurer millions in hard dollars. He says HIP was first introduced to the product from a direct marketing aspect, and over the last four-plus years has found it a valuable tool in its Medicare program. It currently is making plans to use it on the commercial side as well. He says he likes the ability to follow a sale from the initial call, through tracking, and the final closure. MarketProminence has a lot of built-in features that allow us to automate completely the uploading of demographic membership information into our system, says Villalaba. It also takes care of some of the regulatory processes with Medicare.

After first using the tool in marketing, HIP then began to use it to downstream automated uploading setup work. It does have a lot of nice electronic workflow features to it, Villalaba says.
Villalaba believes MarketProminence has been helpful with the reconciliation process. You tell Medicare you have 100 Medicare members, and Medicare goes against its files and validates it, he says. Sometimes we have members enrolled that the Medicare files have assigned to another health plan. We validate and show Medicare the members are in our health plan. That in itself is worth several million dollars a year to a plan our size. Its been a great revenue stream for uscollecting money owed us by the government and having audit trails to go with it.

Brad Turley, president of Continuum Performance Systems, says, Although weve always focused on government premium receipt and reconciliation, slim margins and the recent focus on accounting standards have forced us to take our software to the next level. Weve added receivables aging and multiple source premium tracking to allow our clients to assess the time value of the underpaid government reimbursements. For the last 10 years, Continuum, through its MarketProminence software suite, has allowed insurers to do just that. Now with version 2003.1, we are delivering the advanced receivables and aging features that users have been telling us they need.

In addition, the new tools in Market-Prominence give managers tighter control over the management of those funds, according to Turley. Inadequate business process can cost a plan enormous sums, he says. MarketProminence 2003.1 is a fully integrated package that is designed to give executives greater management oversight and accountability.

SHOPPINGCART
Product: ClientSoft ServiceBuilder
Company: ClientSoft
Web site: www.clientsoft.com

ClientSoft, a legacy integration solutions provider for the Microsoft .NET Frame-work, Java, and Web services environments, has introduced ClientSoft Service- Builder, designed to allow enterprise developers to wrap existing legacy programs and transactions into ready-to-use .NET, Java, or COBOL components, as well as Web services. Additionally, ServiceBuilder possesses bi-directional Web services support, not only publishing legacy transactions as Web services, but also allowing legacy programs to consume Web services.
ServiceBuilder includes the following development and deployment capabilities:

Direct Access to Host LogicServiceBuilder deploys on the mainframe and leverages a non-screen-based approach, offering several high-performance methods for direct host access.

SOAP over MQ SeriesService-Builder allows developers to create CICS programs that read SOAP messages from queues, LINK, or 3270 to back-end applications and deliver SOAP replies over an MQ Series queue.

Advanced Security Featuresthis product seamlessly integrates into the mainframes Enterprise Security Manager, providing a centralized approach to security often lacking in alternative middle-tier solutions. Also, ServiceBuilder supports a variety of other security devices including SSL, X.509 certificates, Pass Tickets, as well as additional algorithms.

Host-initiated Actions Within External ApplicationsServiceBuilder possesses the ability to drive host-initiated actions on distributed platforms, including any Java or Windows application. Examples of these applications may be Microsoft Office programs, such as Word and Excel, or more complex enterprise systems, such as PeopleSoft, SAP, or Siebel.

Mainframe-based Consumption of Web ServicesNot only does Service-Builder allow developers to build and publish Web services from the mainframe applications, the tool also enables mainframe logic to consume Web services running systems external to the mainframe.