Asparity Rolls Out Scorecards on Health Plan Performance.

Employers Use Decision Support Data to Quantify Consumer Behavior

DURHAM, N.C. -- Asparity Decision Solutions announces the use of scorecards to provide employers information about their health plans' performance. The scorecards use the data generated from Asparity's decision support tools on health plan selection. Employers can now view how their health plans' performed during the 2007 annual enrollment season.

Asparity is introducing Health Plan Scorecards in its annual reporting package to employers. The data includes five performance measures:

1. Enrollment behavior to evaluate how decision support results affected a health plan's actual enrollment,

2. Plan rankings to show how a health plan scored -- compared to other offerings -- in the decision support tools,

3. Adoption rates to demonstrate how often employees enrolled in a specific health plan given its actual performance in the decision support tools,

4. Estimated costs to determine how cost effective a health plan was in providing care to employees, based on their projected medical utilization, and

5. Attribute profiles to illustrate how adequately a health plan met employees' health care needs in terms of specific product features, such as access, benefit, cost and satisfaction measures.

Employers can use the scorecards to improve results from their health plans. If an employer provides the scorecards to its health plans, they can be more responsive to market demand -- by employers and employees -- for products and pricing. "Employers might be apprehensive to share the data with their health plans, and it is certainly not without its risk," says Colleen Murphy, Asparity's President and CEO. "If an employer is less than satisfied with their health plans' performance, the scorecards should get their attention and encourage change."

Asparity's data solutions help employers take a more market-driven approach to their health care program. The Annual Report, provided to clients shortly after open enrollment is completed, describes an employee population's buying behavior based on its use of the decision support tools. Asparity delivers the Annual Report through a secure website (SiteAdmin), which includes self-service tools that employee benefit managers use to conduct additional analysis in the areas of demographic profiles and benefit preferences. Asparity is also introducing results for income segmentation, tax savings, and high-cost utilizers in the Annual Report this year.

The capabilities compliment SimHR, Asparity's online suite of market research tools, which enable companies to better design a health care program that fulfill employees' personal and financial needs, while controlling rising health care costs. Companies have online access to their populations' benefit preference data to evaluate in "real time" how employees might respond to new benefit designs, plan offerings and pricing strategies. SimHR uses Asparity's patented technology in conjoint analysis, the same science used in market research to bring new products and pricing to the marketplace.

"Employees use decision support to become better health care consumers," says Murphy. "Our data quantifies consumer behavior, which employers can use to become better health care suppliers."

About Asparity Decision Solutions

Asparity provides decision support and data solutions in the areas of employee benefits, operational risk and workforce talent. The company owns patented technology in conjoint analysis and advanced software applications that it delivers directly to corporate clients and through strategic partners. The company is headquartered in Durham, N.C. with offices in Amarillo, Texas. To find out more, please visit www.asparity.com or contact Leslie Hart, director of marketing, at 919-688-1430.