Microsoft Announces New Low-Cost Turnkey State Health Insurance Exchange Technology Solutions

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced it will offer new turnkey technology solutions tailored to help states quickly roll out their statewide health insurance exchanges by 2014. These solutions are part of Microsoft's broader set of offerings for health and human services, designed to assist states in reducing the cost of service delivery, while improving quality and efficiency. Solutions include health information exchanges, enrollment and eligibility, and health-enabled business intelligence/analytics and case coordination.

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Microsoft's State Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) solutions include several core Microsoft and partner technologies and allow state and government agencies to choose a single interoperable framework that connects new and existing government and private sector systems within a consistent architecture. Among Microsoft's partners is Extend Health, Inc., which operates the largest private Medicare health insurance exchange in the country and recently won the contract to provide its exchange technology and services to the state of Nevada's Public Employees' Benefits Program where it will transition eligible retired employees to individual Medicare supplemental plans.

State HIX solutions from Microsoft and its partners offer a clear, simple choice for building a successful insurance exchange and helping achieve compliance with health reform legislation's insurance exchange provisions. This offering can provide a state with a single solution that integrates the multiple aspects of health insurance delivery, including consumer portals, eligibility determinations, financial services, plan enrollment, enhanced privacy features and program administration.

"The insurance exchange aspect of healthcare reform is creating the need for states to make decisions and solve problems that lie outside their traditional areas of expertise, such as integrating databases, collecting monthly premiums and calculating tax subsidies," said Jack Hersey, general manager, United States Public Sector Healthcare and Social Services Group, Microsoft. "Microsoft's HIX solutions eliminate the need for states to evaluate numerous point solutions from various firms to find one that works well with government policies or existing IT infrastructures. When a state chooses Microsoft's State Health Insurance Exchange solutions, officials can be confident that their design and implementation partners will be capable and have a proven track record."

Microsoft's technologies, including Windows Azure, Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server, serve as the foundation for the HIX solutions and provide a framework made up of well-known, interoperable technology products. Partner technologies, such as Extend Health's premium administration, plan comparisons, and enrollment and call center operations solutions, layer additional functionality to the robust platform.

"The Microsoft HIX solutions will save states time and money in the design and deployment of the technology underlying health insurance exchanges," said Bryce Williams, CEO of Extend Health. "It frees states to focus on building proper consumer support to help citizens make their best choice from available healthcare plans."

Microsoft's HIX offering also gives states access to the extensive Microsoft partner network for solid expertise in crucial areas such as systems integration, Medicaid Management Information Systems and Medicaid Information Technology Architecture requirements.

More information about Microsoft's HIX solutions is available at http://www.microsoft.com/hhs.

About Microsoft in Health

Microsoft is committed to improving health around the world through software innovation. Over the past 13 years, Microsoft has steadily increased its investments in health with a focus on addressing the challenges of health providers, health and social services organizations, payers, consumers and life sciences companies worldwide. Microsoft closely collaborates with a broad ecosystem of partners and delivers its own powerful health solutions, such as Amalga, HealthVault, and a portfolio of identity and access management technologies acquired from Sentillion Inc. in 2010. Together, Microsoft and its industry partners are working to deliver health solutions for the way people aspire to work and live.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.