Abstract
In 2021, Tony Fernandes recognized that Fallon Health’s antiquated annual statement software solution required an unnecessarily high degree of manual effort. The upgrade to Gain not only solved this issue, but provided lift to other parts of the process as well.
In this Customer Story, you’ll see the transformation enabled by Gain’s modern, Cloud-native software on the team’s reporting workflows and the positive impact on the review process.
Key Quotes
“Our filings happen faster, and the review can happen sooner. When I do that review in Gain… I can look more closely and ask better questions about what’s going on within our statements.”
Tony Fernandes, Financial Reporting and Planning Principal, Fallon Health
“They show up as clear visual cues in the schedules so the team is clearing those variances in real time. Once it gets to the review, the dashboard provides clear visibility into the validation errors.”
Mike Beaulieu, Assistant Controller, Fallon Health
Background
In 2014, Mike Beaulieu took on a statutory reporting role at a health insurer. He was joined several years later by Tony Fernandes. Both became accustomed to using the Annual Statement product they inherited which, at the time, represented state-of-the-art technology.
Years later, they joined Fallon Health – Tony, in a leadership role; Mike, overseeing reporting workflows. Both had responsibility for statement review. Since the company was using the same software product from their prior company, they returned to using it without much forethought.
In 2021, as Tony became more active within the software, he came to a realization: “It was exactly how I remembered when I used it in the past: it hadn’t changed at all.” Alongside the same-old technology, he recognized that his team was grinding through a familiar set of time-consuming workflows made necessary by the software’s limitations.
Later that year, after seeing a demo of Gain Compliance’s Cloud-native solution, Fallon Health upgraded.
Taking the Lead
With Gain, Tony enjoyed user-friendly tools to manage the team’s access to the software. With the real-time cross-checks in the schedules, and with the guidance close at hand, new team members learn the domain and contribute to the filings almost immediately. “We maybe do a quick walkthrough, but it’s such an intuitive tool, they just take it from there.”
As a reviewer, Tony appreciates the visibility he has into the team’s progress on the company’s statements, and how status dots within the application cue his review. “It’s simple really, but so helpful from a reviewer’s perspective because I know it’s ready. Everything is right there – the instructions, the cross checks – making the review process so much easier.”
One of the biggest upgrades with Gain were the Notes. The team was no longer wasting time on formatting their Notes, or getting Notes data aligned between the PDF and electronic filing. “It’s just more modern,” he said, “and everything with the Notes is all there in one place.” Another significant win was the ease of use for the Cash Flow worksheet. As with the Notes, Gain removed work that didn’t add value to their process.
With Gain, the team was working more efficiently. “Our filings happen faster, and the review can happen sooner. When I do that review in Gain, I’m not having to ask about the formatting. I can look more closely, and ask better questions about what’s going on within our statements.”
Validating the Statements
With his extensive experience with statutory filings, Mike was impressed with how Gain presented the guidance. “It’s helpful for me as a seasoned user of this type of software. With the people we’ve brought into the process, it’s intuitive and they seem to pick it up quickly.”
That included how the software made it much easier for the team to complete their Notes. “My role is on the review side, so I’m not directly involved in the Notes, but the team has made it clear that it has saved them a lot of time as well as headaches.”
Mike found the biggest benefit in Gain’s real-time validations. “They show up as clear visual cues in the schedules,” he said, “so the team is clearing those variances in real time. Once it gets to the review, the dashboard provides clear visibility into the validation errors.”
Conclusion
For users of legacy annual statement software, the limitations and the extra work required are often accepted without question. While there are benefits to familiarity, it can also limit growth and opportunities for process improvement.
By leveraging not only the latest technology, but also best practices in software design, the team at Gain has built an intuitive application that becomes immediately familiar so that teams can quickly begin to leverage its powerful functionality.
Learn more about how Gain has improved outcomes for financial reporting teams for other carriers.