Denplan deploy DocXP™ to manage patient application forms
Denplan, part of the AXA Group, is the UK's leading dental plan provider, with over 6000 member dentists nationwide (around a third of UK General Dental Practitioners) and over 1.4 million patients. Denplan pioneered dental payment plans in 1986 and is the market leader with an 87 percent share. Denplan places the emphasis on regular payments by the patient to the dentist to fund preventive care and advice, reducing the need for clinical intervention. The objective of the Denplan member dentist is to enable patients to maintain healthy teeth and gums for life.
Scanning and Automated Data Capture
The Problem
Denplan’s Registration Services Team receives over 1000 paper-based application forms per day from patients wishing to register onto a Denplan product. Prior to the introduction of DRS’ DocXP™ solution, the data from a form was captured via a manual ‘key from form’ process using a data capture program developed in-house. During this process the data is validated against specific business rules, comprehensive look-ups to external databases and interfaces with other third party programs. Once captured the data is then loaded into Denplan’s core administration system, with the paper-based form sent off-site to a third party where it is scanned, indexed and archived for retrieval purposes.
The current end-to-end process is both lengthy and manual due to tasks such as sorting, batching, allocation of work, keying and filing.
To meet its primary objective of increasing core business growth, Denplan was tasked with providing its Registration Services Team with a solution that would enable it to process an increased number of paper-based registration forms without increasing operational headcount or jeopardising quality and existing service standards. The team was also keen to normalise the existing business processes to ensure greater efficiency and improve cost effectiveness.
The Solution - DocXP™
Denplan initiated the project with a comprehensive evaluation phase in order to select the provider and solution that would best meet its requirements.
Denplan mainly operate within a Microsoft environment, so was looking for a solution that would fully integrate with its existing IT infrastructure, but also support its longer term IT strategy. From an operating perspective the solution needed to fit with the major Registration Services business activities, such as ‘pending’ forms for querying purposes and ‘rejecting’ forms that had not been completed correctly by the customer.
As the evaluation stage progressed, it became clear to Denplan that it required a sole provider that could not only supply the software, but also offered system integration, consultancy, hardware and ongoing support. The solution provider had to specialise in forms processing, but also offer archive and retrieval capabilities.
The conclusion of this phase was to offer DRS the contract for the following reasons:
- Honest feedback – from the outset DRS managed Denplan’s expectations in terms of what could realistically be achieved
- Flexible – strong commitment to developing software that would meet Denplan’s specific requirements
- Cost effective – the initial investment provided greater value for money and shorter return on investment compared with its competitors
- Low cost of ownership – licensing structure did not work on a ‘number of forms processed’ basis so if Denplan’s volumes increased the cost would not
- Simple to use – Denplan operators liked DocXP™’s simple, easy to use interfaces
- Scalable – the solution could be extended enterprise-wide if required and additional modules could be purchased that could support future requirements.
To meet Denplan’s forms processing requirements, a client/server-based solution was implemented using DRS’ DocXP™ software. To meet its archive and retrieval requirements, Denplan opted for DocXP™ Retrieval, a web-based application again supplied by DRS.
The result - efficiency and cost savings
Denplan now scans approximately 80 percent of all registration forms that are received. Using an A3 Panasonic scanner (recommended by DRS), the scan process creates clear, crisp images. Using the DocXP™ Capture module, the scan operator is then able to uniquely batch the forms for internal tracking purposes.
Once scanned, the forms are sent through the DocXP™ Automatic Data Capture (ADC) process. Working with pre-defined templates based on Denplan’s registration forms, ADC identifies the form, reads the relevant machine and handwritten text at over 25 characters per second. All of this is carried out to a sufficient level of accuracy with only small changes to Denplan’s forms.
The next stage is for Denplan operators to ‘character inspect’ all of the high confidence characters. As all Denplan’s registration forms are completed by hand, the DocXP™ Character Inspection module provides a valuable quality assurance check, presenting operators with a quick method of ensuring that all high confidence characters were interpreted correctly.
DocXP™ Index module is then used, allowing operators to correct any characters that could not be interpreted by ADC. It is within this module that the data is validated using Denplan’s business rules, look-ups to Denplan databases and interfaces with third party applications to validate address and bank account data. By using this index process rather than the old ‘key from form’ approach, Denplan is aiming to decrease the amount of time taken to capture one form by approximately 50 percent.
Both character inspection and data correction operate on a ‘push delivery’ system which removes the manual processes required within the old system to create, allocate and pick up forms for keying, thus saving further valuable time.
Once complete, the form images are then filed into the repository for future reference, along with the index data. The data captured from the form is then seamlessly loaded into Denplan’s core administration system via a custom-built export process. This now enables Denplan to take control of its filing rather than outsourcing this at cost to a third party.
DRS provided Denplan with project resource responsible for attaining and understanding its business situation, gathering custom business requirements and business rules. This exercise was conducted professionally and efficiently: the whole DRS team integrated well with Denplan’s project team, gaining a good knowledge of the business within a short space of time and with limited impact on the Registration Service operators’ daily routine.
After thorough user acceptance testing conducted by Denplan, the end product was delivered to the Registration Services Team on time and to their specification, enabling smooth deployment and ensuring production was not affected by the release.
Now the solution is operational, Denplan look forward to working with DRS to implement further phases and identify other business areas that may benefit from the technology.