Health insurer Anthem has expanded its services agreement with technology leader IBM with a focus on using artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to improve operational efficiency and modernize technology platforms.
With this collaboration, Armonk, New York-based IBM and Indianapolis-based Anthem, one of the largest U.S. health insurance coampnies, will work together to help drive Anthem’s digital transformation and deliver an enhanced digital experience for its nearly 40 million consumers, Anthem said in a press release.
In 2015, Anthem entered into a five-year, $500-million-dollar strategic technology services partnership with IBM in which the technology giant provided operational services for Anthem’s mainframe and data center server and storage infrastructure. As part of that agreement, Anthem has been able to leverage IBM Cloud solutions to increase the ease, availability and speed of adding infrastructure to support new business requirements, the company said.
Under the expanded agreement, IBM will provide Anthem with enterprise services for its mainframe and data center server and storage infrastructure management. In addition, IBM will work with Anthem towards creating an AI environment which will allow for an automated infrastructure providing 24/7 digital capabilities. This will bring greater value and access to Anthem's consumers, care providers, and employees, Anthem said.
IBM and Anthem will also continue to work together on IT automation. Since 2015, the two companies’ have implemented over 130 bots, automating over 70 percent of the monthly high volume repetitive tasks. This includes bots that can identify when a server is reaching capacity to shift workloads to other less utilized servers ensuring that work is not impacted. This capability has improved systems availability as well as freed up resources to work on higher-value projects, Anthem said in a press release.
“We are seeing a dynamic change in the healthcare industry, requiring us to be more agile and responsive, utilizing advanced technology like AI to drive better quality and outcomes for consumers,” Tim Skeen, senior vice president and chief information officer, Anthem, Inc., said in a statement. “Our continued strategic partnership with IBM will help establish a stronger foundation for Anthem to respond to the changing demands in the market, deliver greater quality of services for consumers and help accelerate Anthem’s focus on leading the transformation of healthcare to create a more accessible, more affordable, more accountable healthcare system for all Americans.”
“The collaboration between IBM Services and Anthem has already laid the groundwork to improve healthcare processes and quality,” said Martin Jetter, senior vice president, IBM Global Technology Services. “Our latest agreement will accelerate Anthem’s growth strategy and continued leadership as one of the largest healthcare insurance companies and provide a solid path to bringing new efficiencies in driving digital transformation.”
