Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont Saves Nearly a Half-Million Dollars with a Microsoft Partner Compensation Managemen...( REDMOND Wash. Nov. 19 /- Microsoft Co...),Health

REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT), Vermont's largest private health carrier, has saved nearly a half-million dollars with a Microsoft partner compensation management system. Implemented to overhaul incentive compensation and agent management capabilities, Computer Solutions & Software International's (CSSI) VUE Compensation Management, a Microsoft .NET Framework-based application, has also enabled BCBSVT to decouple broker commissions from insurance premiums, reduce manual interventions by 97 percent and go paperless with broker commission statements.

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"Since the start of the implementation in March 2007, VUE Compensation Management has enabled us to examine every broker compensation arrangement in place, identifying out-of-date incentive programs and recognizing cases where broker commissions were not leveraging the desired business result," said Ellen Yakubik, marketing director, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont. "As a result of this data cleanup and improved processing controls, BCBSVT has saved nearly half a million dollars. Over the next few years, we expect VUE Compensation Management to help us further refine our broker payment processes and focus our commission costs on maximizing the value from our distribution channels."

Before it used VUE Compensation Management, BCBSVT paid brokers a percentage of insurance premiums, and as these premiums rose, commission payouts increased from $3 million to more than $10 million. Now, BCBSVT has the flexibility needed to curb these rising costs by structuring commissions on the basis of subscriber contracts or pay-for-performance agreements, rather than having commissions tied only to medical pre
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