Amalgamated Life_____

AcroTrain e-Learning System Helps Amalgamated Life
Meet the HIPAA Challenge

Project manager Ron Fleissman at Amalgamated Life Insurance Company located in New York City found the AcroTrain™ e-Learning System made his HIPAA training program a big success. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is a set of regulations implemented by the government to ensure the portability of health care coverage and the preservation of patient health care confidentiality. The act requires training for insurance industry and other personnel.

Amalgamated Life selected the AcroTrain system because it offered the most flexibility, used a very simple to implement approach and the price was right. Fleissman said, "We looked at many other systems, some costing thousands of dollars more, that did not offer the features we needed. This system permitted us to do just what we needed."

The New York office used a 'blended' approach of instructor-led and CBT training. Amalgamated's New Hampshire office used just CBT. The initial training of the 500-person workforce is 99% complete. The CBT now provides the required training for new hires and will be used for required re-certification every three years. The AcroTrain records system automatically records the course completion for CBT learners. The course administrator enters data from instructor-led training sessions to provide training documentation for all learners.

Mr. Fleissman developed the course presentation slides using PowerPoint®. He then used AcroEdit to define his course, associate it with the correct PowerPoint files and add formative questions for learner interactivity. He opted not to include an examination with this course. Upon course completion, the system presents a custom certificate that learners can print for their personal completion documentation. After testing the course on his computer, the files were transferred to the company intranet. A desktop icon on the available training computers provided an easy means for learners to launch the HIPAA course.

Amalgamated Life was founded in 1943 to protect the financial well being of working men and women. Sidney Hillman, President of the Union (then known as the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, today known as UNITE!), envisioned a cooperative, labor-oriented, cost-effective means of delivering collectively bargained insurance and pension services to union participants.

Today Amalgamated Life and affiliates is a third party administrator, a medical management company, a computer service company and a printing and graphics company. They provide a full range of benefit services to their clients. They have maintained a consistent AM Best's "A" rated company and accreditation by the American Accreditation Health Care Commission for their medical management.