Workscape and Asparity Form Alliance to Offer Benefits Administration Decision Support Solutions
Strategic Collaboration Provides Workscape's Clients with Tools to Streamline Benefits Selection and Service, Allowing Employees to Take Ownership of Healthcare Decisions -
MARLBOROUGH, Mass. and DURHAM, N.C., March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Workscape, Inc., a proven provider of outsourced benefits and workforce management solutions, today announced that the company has formed a strategic alliance with Asparity Decision Solutions, a leading provider of online decision support and data services for the self-service marketplace. Through this relationship, Asparity and Workscape have teamed to develop tools for Workscape's Outsourced Benefits Administration (OBA) clients.
According to a February 2006 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office on employee compensation, health insurance costs have increased by 28 percent since 1991, causing health benefit expenditures in 2005 to equal those for paid leave, previously the most expensive benefit provided by employers. An increasing number of organizations are turning to Workscape's OBA offering to lower costs and provide their employees with increased services. By teaming with Asparity, Workscape has incorporated decision-support tools in its OBA solutions, helping employees to be better healthcare consumers and employers to better understand the needs of their workforce and to design plan choices in a more cost-effective way.
"Workscape's commitment to helping its clients solve difficult problems -- such as making employees better healthcare consumers -- is impressive," said Colleen Murphy, president and COO of Asparity Decision Solutions. "By offering Asparity's decision support and data services to its clients, Workscape also helps them become better healthcare suppliers."
Workscape's OBA solution provides Web-based applications and integrated services, backed by customized HR Service Center support, that automate all aspects of benefits administration, including enrollment, eligibility, employee communications and vendor management. The solution also tracks FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act), COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act), FSA (Flexible Spending Accounts), and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) program administration, allowing HR to reallocate resources to strategic priorities without jeopardizing service quality.
Asparity's patented technology seamlessly integrates with Workscape's existing self-service solutions to give employees the decision support tools they need to become better healthcare consumers. Through educational resources and user-friendly tools that make it easier to understand healthcare options, employees and retirees can take an active part in controlling healthcare costs. The Web-enabled solutions include preference modeling tools as well as medical cost and FSA calculators, and modules that help estimate the tax savings of HSAs (health savings accounts). Each tool is designed to provide users with a better understanding of their preferences and decisions. The alliance with Asparity also provides Workscape's clients with the option of purchasing a year-end data report to help them understand their workforce's buying behavior. Through conjoint analysis and traditional market research techniques, Asparity's patented technology provides clients with data they can use to drive strategy and control costs, such as attribute importance profiles, cross tabs, market share, and turnover tables.
Tim Clifford, President and CEO of Workscape, said, "Rising healthcare costs continue to be a critical concern for every business. It is more important than ever that we arm our Outsourced Benefits Administration clients with the decision-support tools their employees need to make educated decisions. Through this strategic partnership with Asparity, we are able to provide our clients with customized solutions that increase healthcare consumerism by empowering employees to take charge of their healthcare, while at the same time provide vital preference and purchasing data to employers."
About Asparity Decision Solutions
Asparity Decision Solutions (Asparity) owns patented technology in conjoint analysis and other software applications that it customizes for and licenses to private- and public-sector organizations in the U.S. and around the world. Asparity provides its online decision support and data services to about 40 Fortune 1000 companies, as well as to select agencies of the Federal Government, and the outsourcing organizations that serve them. The company is headquartered in Durham, N.C. To find out more, please visit www.asparity.com/ .
About Workscape
Designed for the workforce, Workscape's solutions transform the delivery and adoption of HR services across the enterprise to maximize ROI and enable a higher-performing organization. An innovator in HR self-service, Workscape provides a full range of outsourced HR solutions including benefits administration, compensation management, performance management, employee self-service and manager self-service, as well as an employee portal. Workscape's applications and services are configurable to support each client's unique business processes, easily integrated into multi-vendor environments to ensure protection of existing technology investments, and have been embraced by millions of employees worldwide.
For more information, visit the company website at www.workscape.com/ or call (888) 605-9620.
Note to editors: Workscape is a registered trademark of Workscape, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Source: Workscape, Inc.
CONTACT: Jeanne Achille of The Devon Group for Workscape, Inc.,
+1-732-224-1000, ext. 11, jeanne@devonpr.com
Web site: www.workscape.com/
http://www.asparity.com/
