Humana 2000 Annual Report Download - page 7

MOMENTUM
In short, using the engine of
information technology, we
decided to simplify. And we made
measurable progress toward turning
our proposition into reality:
Our electronically submitted
claims increased to 60 percent
in 2000 from 49 percent the
year before.
The percentage of electronically
submitted claims successfully
processed on a “first-pass” basis
– that is, without the time and
expense of manual adjudication
– rose to 64 percent last year
from 59 percent in 1999.
Twenty-three percent of
customer inquiries were handled
through interactive voice
response in 2000, versus only
7 percent the previous year.
We developed standardized PPO
products in all our core markets.
We purged 1,200 commercial
products that burdened
our systems with needless
complexity and expense.
We will
make life
easierfor
our customers.
s i m p l i f y
10 11
g a i n i n g . . .
It’s often said that health
benefits are impossibly complicated
– that it would take someone with
unlimited time and no competing
priorities to puzzle through the
wilderness of coinsurance,
deductibles, out-of-network
benefits, panel providers and the
rest. We grant that insurance isn’t
easy. Beginning in 2000, however,
we dedicated ourselves to the
proposition that what’s complex
for us doesn’t have to be complex
for you, our stockholders, health
plan members, customers and
physician partners.
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Initiatives such as these
have shown us that one key to
gaining momentum is to use tech-
nology as a tool to spur dramatic
improvements in process and
product design. The result for our
customers is simplicity, ease of
use and peace of mind.