Implementing a highly visible, mission-critical application in weeks rather than years.
Done.
The California Employment Development Department (EDD) engaged Unisys to extend its existing system to handle hundreds of thousands of new claims — greatly speeding time to productivity.
Breakthrough: Expedited claims processing
The EDD expanded its existing platform to accommodate additional claims resulting from legislation extending disability compensation to caregivers.
Secure Business Operation
State disability insurance claims processing
Innovation Metrics
The department is handling 200,000 additional claims and related documentation, and has expedited claims processing — without expending the time or money to implement an entirely new system.
Expediting claims processing.
In 2002, California enacted historic legislation to extend disability compensation to cover individuals who take time off of work to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, or domestic partner, or to bond with a new child. The Paid Family Leave insurance program is administered by the State Disability Insurance (SDI) program, which in turn is administered by the California Employment Development Division (EDD). An estimated 13 million California workers who are covered by the SDI program are now also covered for Paid Family Leave insurance benefits, increasing the size of the SDI program by almost a third.
Having already reaped the benefits of imaging and workflow as a result of a 4-year technology overhaul in its Tax Processing and Accounting Division, EDD saw an opportunity to once again expedite the claims process by expanding the Tax Engineering and Modernization (TEAM) platform. Now, the EDD SDI program is easily handling an additional 200,000 claims – and the accompanying 500,000 supporting documents – without the need for building a whole new database.
Leveraging technology.
Because Unisys had done the overhaul of EDD’s tax processing system, the firm was a natural choice for modifying the TEAM platform to encompass the new Paid Family Leave (PFL) claims.
“Unisys was already a partner with whom we had established a successful working relationship,” remarks EDD Director Pat Henning, “so we were comfortable bringing them in to help us streamline operations on the SDI program just as we had for tax processing.”
Indeed, EDD and Unisys have been triumphant in their efforts to leverage the existing TEAM infrastructure. PFL Project Director Craig Hanson explains: “We have an old system that manages our disability program, but with the PFL claims added to the program we would need to add new data fields. Instead of building a separate database to handle the PFL claims, we decided to employ a more modern user interface and leverage the existing tax processing system. That’s where Unisys has been very helpful — they used the scanners and technology they had already developed to image the PFL claim data and transfer it into the mainframe as well as into the TEAM platform, allowing us to mix and match the two databases to work concurrently. They also helped us go through our forms to ensure that we captured the fields correctly. Unisys saved us a lot of grief by eliminating the need for us to manually key in data.”
“Unisys is handling a lot of documents,” continues Hanson. “Along with the 200,000 claim forms come another 500,000 documents such as birth certificates and other forms of identification. All these are imaged and the data captured for processing. For a benefit program like disability insurance, that’s unique.”
“Previously, Hanson notes, “the only forms we imaged were tax forms, which are all numbers. PFL claim forms have not only numbers, but narratives, dates, addresses, and handwritten notes as well. Capturing that data without the benefit of this system would have been a massive effort.”
Increasing efficiency.
Since the PFL imaging system has been in production, EDD has enjoyed a number of benefits -- not the least of which is the ability to quickly process claims.
“By leveraging the tax processing system that Unisys developed, we can handle PFL claims electronically, greatly reducing labor requirements while increasing program efficiency,” remarks Casey Young, Director of EDD’s Disability Insurance Program.
“Traditionally, claim forms come in and get routed to a field office, where they get stacked up,” explains Hanson. “But because PFL claims come in electronically, they’re all right on the desktop, so anyone processing a claim can pull it up and see it immediately versus chasing it down. And, all the correspondence is right there too – that’s the beauty of it. It gives us a lot of control over the documents, with the ability for anyone to step up and grab a case very quickly as compared to a regular disability insurance field office.”
“Since we’ve started using this system,” continues Hanson, “now Unemployment Insurance is going to follow suit – and they handle millions of claims.”
At a Glance:
California Education Development Department Paid Family Leave Insurance Program
Reports to
California Labor and Workforce Development Agency
Mission
Collecting employment taxes and maintaining records for workers and employers.
Objective
Modernizing operations to improve service and reduce costs.
Results
Significantly reduced processing time, improved customer service and considerable cost savings.
Population served
20 million
About Unisys in the Public Sector
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