Distinguished Benefit Management Companies Unite to Establish the SKYGEN USA Family of Companies Brand to Drive Heightened Integrated Value for Healthcare Organizations

MEQUON, Wis., May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Creating opportunities for payers as they face challenges adjusting to the constantly shifting landscape of health insurance in the 21^st Century, a distinguished collection of benefit management companies unites today to establish a family of companies through the evolution of a new umbrella brand, reinvigorated company brands, and a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Renowned leaders in their respective markets, Wonderbox Technologies, Scion Dental, Vestica Healthcare, American Therapy Administrators, and Ocular Benefits have joined forces to create the SKYGEN USA Family of Companies (www.skygenusa.com). The new powerhouse brand offers shared resources, synergies, and integration to deliver heightened value to healthcare organizations including payers, providers, managed care organizations and innovative new delivery systems such as Accountable Care Organizations. The Family of Companies has also recently established a leading-edge analytics company focused on bringing a new wave of technology-driven intelligence to plan sponsors named Hylis Pharmacy Solutions.

The launch of SKYGEN USA enables healthcare payers and organizations to drive process improvements and dramatically reduce the cost of delivering benefits while ensuring compliance with government regulations. Payers can now more efficiently bundle and scale benefit offerings to take advantage of rapidly developing market opportunities, although they still retain the option to select each technology and benefit management solution individually, as well.

"The Affordable Care Act and the move to performance-based models such as accountable care have created a tremendous amount of turmoil around health insurance, especially within specialized benefits such as dental and vision," said Craig Kasten, Board Chairman of SKYGEN USA. "Rather than expanding internally, research shows payers increasingly want to retain quality partners who offer comprehensive, niche solutions backed by great people with proven market expertise. The creation of SKYGEN USA allows us to help fulfill those requirements while maintaining the flexibility that has always driven our success."

Research shows the market stands ready for new partnerships that yield high-value outcomes driven by innovation and technology to lower the cost of delivering benefits. When research respondents were probed about the favorability of the establishment of an umbrella brand, they reacted positively to working with a larger entity with multiple capabilities and more extensive resources versus contracting separately for technology and/or services with disparate vendors. A key advantage to the new framework is it enables customers to contract with one company, or multiple depending on their needs.

Employees of the SKYGEN USA family of companies also said they preferred the presence of a united brand, both to help in delivering the most comprehensive solution to clients and to bring employees together. A cohesive brand identity will also make it easier to accommodate new business offerings as the company's growth trajectory accelerates. "Our unique ability to nimbly innovate our software, backed by the in-depth industry knowledge of our people are our core differentiators," Kasten said. "We want to leverage these market advantages while creating a brand framework reflecting who we are today and where we're headed in the future."

Leading with technology innovation

The heart of the SKYGEN USA solution is Wonderbox Technologies' world-class Enterprise System software. This technology serves as the foundation for all of SKYGEN USA's benefit management solutions, although it can be purchased by payers to implement within their own IT departments as well. The market-leading platform automates many previously manual operations, helping payers prepare to become what SKYGEN USA calls "The Insurance Company of the Future" more quickly.

For example, the technology takes traditional challenges related to delays in claims processing and authorization out of play. With an integrated system architecture and customized packages of business rules that establish workflows to investigate questionable claims and delegate immediate review, the often laborious process is expedited. The intricate software design allows the claims processing system to perform automated crosschecks and relationship edits as well as audits on all claims based on each client's unique requirements. Designed for complex processing, the Enterprise System routinely achieves auto-adjudication rates of nearly 99% while continuing to instill a careful process for review when certain claims require an expert level of analysis.

The Enterprise System also simplifies the administration of new, complex Essential Health Benefits, a requirement of the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") requiring insurers to integrate dental and vision benefits into small group and individual healthcare policies for dependent children and special needs adults. This new requirement translates into significant dat integration efforts for healthcare insurers. Now, they must incorporate dental and vision patient out-of-pocket charges into primary health plans and have the ability to accurately track and report deductibles as well as maximums. To complicate matters further, many new health plans include different co-insurance levels for subscribers and spouses versus dependents, posing further intricacy as it relates to data integration.

"As the ACA evolves with new mandates such as Essential Health Benefits, insurers are faced with implementation challenges that may stress their problem-solving resources," stated Kasten. "To meet this need, the SKYGEN USA Family of Companies has designed an industry-leading, dual service offering. Through Scion Dental's benefit management capabilities, combined with Wonderbox Technologies' benefit software solutions, insurers will achieve full data integration compliant with the Essential Health Benefit requirements."

Third, the technology addresses one of the greatest challenges payers face today: delivering a digital experience to both providers and members to create further efficiencies and exceed expectations. Through the use of the company's web portal technology, Wonderbox Technologies offers custom-built web portals to payers which can be branded to their organization and offered to providers and members. "Adoption of web portal technology is the pathway to the future for healthcare payers, providers and members. Through easy-to-use online tools, our solutions help reduce the cost of administering healthcare benefits and increase time savings," stated Darrin Haehle, Chief Information Officer.

Customers of the SKYGEN USA Family of Companies claimed use of the Wonderbox Technologies' platform is one of the company's greatest advantages. Payers in the brand survey said they preferred to work on a software platform that keeps them ahead of the regulatory curve and at the forefront of technology.

Through SKYGEN USA's benefit management companies including Scion Dental and Vestica Healthcare, the Enterprise System is used to manage actual benefits on a daily basis. So, rather than focusing exclusively on developing and selling technology, SKYGEN USA gains first-hand knowledge of the needs and requirements that payers face by interacting with them on a daily basis to manage benefits. This enables the technology company to bring new innovations to clients first, rather than merely reacting to requests.

The platform helps SKYGEN USA meet the top three criteria for choosing a software company, according to the brand research: experience and prior success, technology innovation, and the flexibility and customization needed to adjust to a market that is constantly shifting. Payers look to the platform to minimize the risk and future-proof themselves in the rapidly evolving, dynamic healthcare market.

"Payers often make expensive, long-term commitments for benefit management platforms, sometimes as much as 12 years," Kasten said. "They need assurances the partner is viable and sustainable over the long term. Yet they also want to ensure these new solutions can be easily integrated with existing technologies so they can work from a single platform. We are currently seeing this particularly in the areas of dental and vision insurance. The Enterprise System already fulfills all of those requirements."

Proven benefit management innovation

Unification under the SKYGEN USA brand will provide the convenience and simplicity of having a single source for a variety of benefit management offerings. It also yields process and technology enhancements to improve payers' business operations and cost structure, especially with all businesses using the Wonderbox Technologies' platform as their foundation. Additionally, rather than working with smaller individual organizations, payers are now secure in knowing they are working with a large organization backed by substantial financial resources. Included in the current SKYGEN USA benefit management offering are:

• Dental benefits management – Perhaps the best-known of the individual companies, Scion Dental is a distinguished, world-class dental administration company focused on bringing next-generation claims management and technology solutions together for government entities managing dental claims and commercial payers. The solutions enable payers to improve process efficiencies, achieve compliance, and dramatically reduce the cost of delivering dental benefits. Backed by its roots in forming Doral Dental U.S.A., one of America's largest and fastest growing dental management companies and later sold to DentaQuest Ventures, the team at Scion Dental brings a deep understanding of the dental benefits landscape to every client relationship.
• Medical benefits management – Vestica Healthcare is a cohesive medical administration company focused on bringing next-generation claims management and technology solutions together for healthcare payers, managed care organizations, and delivery systems. This enables these organizations to improve efficiencies, mitigate risk, and dramatically reduce the cost of delivering healthcare benefits. The company has distinguished itself in its work with government entities and has proven capabilities in the area of administering complex bundled payment arrangements.
• Therapy benefits management – American Therapy Administrators is an experienced therapy administration company providing an acclaimed reimbursement model and next-generation technology to healthcare payers. The solution enables payers to reduce over-utilization and dramatically reduce the cost of delivering therapy benefits.
• Vision benefits management – Ocular Benefits is an innovative vision administration company providing next-generation benefits administration and technology solutions together for healthcare payers. This allows payers to improve process efficiencies, compete in the retail environment, and dramatically reduce the cost of delivering eye care benefits.
• Pharmacy benefit data analytics – Hylis Pharmacy Solutions is a leading-edge data analytics company focused on bringing a new wave of technology-driven intelligence to plan sponsors that enables them to implement savings initiatives and deliver cost effective and clinically appropriate prescription drug programs to their members.

Future plans call for SKYGEN USA to apply its world-class technology and expertise in benefits management to additional specialty lines, ultimately allowing payers to contract for the management of their non-core offerings from a single source. As SKYGEN USA continues to build out its family of benefit solutions companies, payers will gain additional competitive advantages. Expanded offerings will enable payers to more easily adapt to new market opportunities without the administrative headaches of working with multiple vendors, all while improving operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Marketing innovation

SKYGEN USA will introduce the Family of Companies brand through a comprehensive marketing program including a new brand identity, websites, and tools for employees, as well as future campaigns to retain existing relationships and build new ones.

A new SKYGEN USA family of companies website (www.skygenusa.com) explains how each of the components fit into the greater vision, while also preserving the integrity of individual market offerings. Designed with the future of web usage in mind, the collection of websites is built responsively, meaning visitors can access content on mobile phones, tablets and laptops as well as on multiple web browsers including Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.

The collection of websites is united by the establishment of a new gateway site (www.skygenusa.com) where visitors can learn more about the integrated solutions, leadership team, and future vision. The gateway site directs visitors to each company brand site, which are also accessible through the existing website URLs: www.wonderboxtech.com, www.sciondental.com, www.vestica.com, www.therapyadmin.com, www.ocularbenefits.com, and www.hylispharmacysolutions.com.  

Backed by the innovation and expertise of its people, two Knowledge Centers have been created (www.skygenusatechnologies.com and www.skygenusabenefitmanagement.com) to house market-appropriate thought leadership materials including videos, white papers, case studies, and articles.  The websites also continue to extend access to client, provider, and member web portals. The "Find A Dentist" tool on www.sciondental.com maintains its position on the site to assist members in finding the right dentist for them.

"Plans for our new branding strategy have been in the making for some time," said Christine Rudella, Director of Marketing. "The advantage behind our framework is it delivers the flexibility and scalability our customers desire. They can look to us for a bundled solution or a single solution. The creation of a family of companies brand underscores our multidisciplinary innovation so our customers can compete more effectively today and well into the future."

About SKYGEN USA
SKYGEN USA is a collection of benefit solution companies that brings together a distinguished mix of next-generation benefit management and technology tools for healthcare organizations. Business units under the SKYGEN USA brand include Wonderbox Technologies, Scion Dental, Vestica Healthcare, American Therapy Administrators, and Ocular Benefits, all of which are recognized leaders in their market niches. The joining of these respected organizations under the SKYGEN USA umbrella enables them to drive process improvements and dramatically reduce the cost of delivering benefits in an advancing healthcare economy. Payers may select the comprehensive solution or individual offerings to fit their requirements. For more information, please go to www.skygenusa.com.  

For media inquiries, please contact:
Christine Rudella
Director of Marketing, SKYGEN USA
[email protected]

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