MCLEAN, Va. and WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- VitalSpring Technologies, the innovator in health benefits performance software, in collaboration with the CFO Executive Board, a division of the Corporate Executive Board , announced today that the two organizations have jointly published a “Primer for CFOs” that addresses new strategies for reducing health benefits costs through health care supply chain optimization.
This short paper outlines how CFOs can optimize the health benefits ‘supply’ side -- the vendors that provide the benefits, while improving the ‘demand’ side -- employees’ utilization of benefits and their individual health and wellness. The CFO Primer features a diagnostic scorecard to help CFOs pick strategies to maximize benefits’ performance and cost containment.
Key lessons for CFO’s include: 1. Leveraging their ERP investments for the management of health benefits will lead to optimization of the benefits supply chain, much as other business processes have been optimized by technology 2. Leading companies are enhancing the purchase-to-pay process for benefits to improve visibility into costs and improve financial reporting 3. Knowledge of employee benefit preferences can help CFOs cut health care spending by five percent, without adversely impacting employee perception
“Today, most large employers lack true transparency to the total costs of their benefits throughout their fragmented supply chain,” said Sreedhar Potarazu, President and CEO, VitalSpring. “CFOs can now leverage their investment in their ERP systems to manage their health benefits supply chain for the first time. Just as companies have been successfully using technology to effectively manage the other supply chain functions in their business, now is the time to apply that approach to the management of healthcare. The CFO Primer is designed to lay this groundwork.”
“Although the rate of health care cost increases has slowed to approximately eight percent per year, the absolute dollar growth of these costs is getting larger,” said Wayne Gore, Managing Director, CFO Executive Board. “Most of the largest health care cost drivers -- prescription drug costs, chronic disease, medical salaries, and quality of care -- account for two-thirds of cost increases. Underlying each driver is a combination of factors influenced by supply and demand forces and variation in population health characteristics. This Primer illustrates how a deeper understanding of these factors and forces can help to identify where a cost-containment strategy should focus.”
Interested parties can obtain a copy of the primer by visiting: http://www.vitalspring.com/finance/finance_cfoprimer.htm
About VitalSpring Technologies, Inc.
VitalSpring Technologies is the first enterprise software company to deliver business intelligence solutions that enable large, self-insured corporations and government agencies to better manage and control healthcare benefits costs. VitalSpring is the only enterprise software company focused exclusively on leveraging employers’ purchasing power within their health benefits supply chain. The Company received two consecutive “Product of the Year” awards -- for 2003 and 2004 -- by Human Resource Executive Magazine. For more information, visit http://www.vitalspring.com.
About the CFO Executive Board
The Washington, D.C.-based CFO Executive Board is a division of the Corporate Executive Board , a leading provider of advisory services, best-practice research, and quantitative analysis. The CFO Executive Board’s services and research are available exclusively to its global membership of Chief Financial Officers and Finance Directors. Detailed analyses on related issues are available at http://www.cfo.executiveboard.com or by contacting the CFO Executive Board at gorew@executiveboard.com.
VitalSpring Technologies
CONTACT: Liz Sara, +1-202-255-0134, for VitalSpring Technologies
