Centerfold

Vytra Stakes Its Claim For A Healthy Network

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In an era of deep concern over health insurance, Vytra Healthcare is searching for ways to provide quality coverage and increase the efficiency of the computer network that links clients, affiliated physicians and their staffs and patients in real-time. Vytra Healthcare's computer network runs over a collapsed FDDI backbone connected to seven Network Peripherals Ethernet-In/FDDI-Out (EIFO) switches with four-port 100-MHz modules at two locations in Melville, N.Y. About 550 nodes, including print servers and PC workstations, are plugged into EIFO switches. The network has enough bandwidth to provide access to all employees, regardless of their location. "We designed a totally flat network where being at a particular building doesn't create pe rformance penalties," says Ron Leccese, Vytra Healthcare's network and securities manager.

The network's MACESS imaging system stores about a year's worth of Vytra records on more than 160 CD-ROMs housed in LAN Atlanta optical servers. "When a doctor or patient mails in a claim, the [MACESS] system digitally scans the information and data-entry personnel enter it into the network," Leccese explains. Patients who call the customer service department don't have to be put on hold, because representatives can access their files at the touch of a button.

A Xerox DocuTech printer lets users create brochures and other written paraphernalia, according to Leccese. A Periphonics voice-response unit--a voice-digitized computer-telephony integration (CTI) application on the network's Sequoia mainframe--lets physicians authorize referrals for patients over the phone. Customers can determine which medical procedures are covered by their Vytra plan by dialing into this system. "Periphonics limits the manual labor needed and opens a 24-hour service," Leccese says.

Large customers, such as the Long Isla nd Lighting Co. (LILCO) and Suffolk County of New York, have direct links set up in their offices to Vytra's Unix-based Sequoia host minicomputer. The Sequoia runs core systems, including claims, human resources, accounts payable and receivable.

Vytra employees use Novell GroupWise 5.0 for e-mail and fax communication. Novell ManageWise provides performance statistics and trending information. Vytra's helpdesk can view a person's computer screen at the same time that the Vytra employee is reporting a problem. Technicians use a customized Vytra adjudication application to locate problems with insurance forms and send those documents electronically to the right system for evaluation.

By the second quarter of 1997, Leccese plans to install a company intranet and a public Web site that would enable physicians to obtain restricted patient data from Vytra through their own workstations. Similarly, large customers would hav e access to online intranet reports on how their employees are treated by Vytra, and patients could tap into Vytra's Web pages to determine the prescriptions and procedures their plan covers, locations of the nearest affiliated doctors or general health-care information.