MHP Selects MyHealthBank

Supporting a move to extend its consumer-centered healthcare strategy into the individual insurance market, St. Louis-based Mercy Health Plans ($604 million in premium income) selected MyHealthBank's (Portland, Ore.) Direct solution to provide self-service shopping, quoting, decision support and application functionality to Mercy Health Plans' Web site by August 2004, the companies say.

In deciding how best to develop a platform to support a strategic move into the individual market, Mercy Health Plans faced a "buy-versus-build" decision, according to Bill Bennett, the carrier's SVP. "We looked internally and at several vendors and decided it would be better to buy," he says. MyHealthBank won out over other vendors for several reasons, according to Bennett. "One of the most important was that MyHealthBank was very flexible and customer-oriented," he comments. "We're extremely pleased with their implementation time line and the can-do attitude of their people."

Mercy and MyHealthBank have agreed to an ongoing development relationship and will work to further enhance the Direct product, a MyHealthBank spokesperson says.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio