Long-distance computer networking is continual at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana’s new service center in Great Falls, where customer advocates look up benefit records for providers as they respond to incoming calls. Brian Elliott, senior manager, said all the information is centrally located at data centers, one in Waukegan, Ill., and one in Fort Worth, Texas, so data transmission is constant. The connection is “top-of-the line from AT&T,” similar to what’s known as a T-1, often described as a trunk line connecting two points on a network.
Desktops in the cubicles have a monitor attached to a Wyse box, which enables workers to log in virtually to distant Blue Cross servers. This eventually could enable the company to hire people to work from home.
He said the setup saves money by eliminating the cost of a PC for each worker. The boxes also take up much less space and have almost no heat output compared with a PC.
The system is much more secure with protected health information, too, Elliot said. Patient health data is required by law to be private.
“No personal information can be downloaded,” because it’s not stored locally, he said.
Blue Cross has a comparatively tiny “data closet,” he said, because the virtual work environment is not sending and receiving information locally, or backing up or storing any data at the Great Falls site.
BCBS spent $6.5 million upgrading the facilities, which have “138 seats.” Elliott said 120 people “will be talking to providers,” the rest will work in support and leadership. The office opened in early June with about 45 workers taking phone calls. Once the building is full, the remote-server concept could enable Blue Cross in Great Falls to hire people who would work at home, as long as their Internet connection meets a minimum standard. He said he expects to be “at full staff in the fourth quarter” in the office on 10th Avenue South.
Pointing to the potential for virtual-office capability, Elliott said when a Blue Cross office in Waco, Texas, the company lost its lease and the entire work force there, from customer advocates to top management, shifted to working from their homes.
Blue Cross considered five Montana cities for the provider service center and “it was close,” he said of the decision to locate in Great Falls.
While infrastructure plays a part, commonly available Internet service such as from the cable company, phone company or other local Internet service providers likely never was a deal breaker because the big corporation could afford major-league big pipes from AT&T.
Date: July 11, 2014