Challenge MDWCC wanted to enable electronic filing for required forms. At the same time they were seeking to enhance customer service on a tight budget. Why Formatta? Formatta's solutions offered a unique combination of excellent technical specifications with reasonable pricing. Solutions Formatta enabled MDWCC's constituents to access, complete, sign, and file forms electronically—all at no cost to the end user. Key Benefits Constituents were most pleased by the efficiency of the new system and the capacity to file forms from remote offices.

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MDWCC Brings E-government to Constituents with Formatta E-forms

The Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission (MDWCC) has enabled its constituents to file official documents electronically using Formatta's electronic forms products and digital signing technology. Instead of making in-person trips to MDWCC in Baltimore to file papers, constituents are now able to electronically sign their documents and file them over the Internet. This has resulted in a 60% increase in efficiency for processing the documents by MDWCC, and a significant increase in customer satisfaction and ease of use for filers.

Organization Background

The Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission is dedicated to securing the equitable and timely administration of the provisions of the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Law on behalf of injured workers and their employers by providing an efficient and effective forum for the resolution of individual claims. The claims process is legal in nature and very forms-intensive, and these forms are crucial to MDWCC’s mission. MDWCC staff currently process over 300,000 such forms annually, including over 140,000 First Incident Report forms and over 27,000 Employee Claim forms.

Business Needs

Compliance with current mandates from the State of Maryland to web-enable agency business processes required MDWCC to extend the scope of their modernization efforts to accommodate electronic filing of required forms by constituents. MDWCC therefore needed a solution that eliminated the expense and inefficiencies of the current paper-based filing system without jeopardizing the legal standing of filed forms. The solution was also required to support a long-standing agency objective: to enhance customer service for constituents.

The legal nature of the claims process presented a further difficulty to MDWCC. Many of the forms used in the claims process are legal documents that require signatures, so electronic signing of the forms also had to be enabled with sufficient authentication and security to maintain the legal viability of the filed document.

The final challenge was budget. For example, MDWCC did not have the resources to implement a public-facing PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) system just to meet the electronic signature requirement. Nor could MDWCC necessarily afford to assume the liability for funding software licenses for an unknown number of public users.

Technology Solution

MDWCC’s Web-enabled Forms Management System (WFMS) utilizes Formatta Corporation’s electronic forms software to enable constituents to access, complete, sign, and file forms electronically – all at no cost to the end user. Registered users are now able to securely file electronically signed forms from their PC in their office, eliminating the need for a trip to Baltimore to file the forms in person at MDWCC offices.

The Formatta forms are accessed from the secure MDWCC website (users must pre-register to gain access to the site – in what is generally their last physical trip to MDWCC for document filing). The forms are downloaded along with a copy of Formatta Filler – Formatta’s freely distributable e-forms software. Users can then fill out the form, save it locally along with their data, sign the form electronically using Formatta’s patent-pending Remote Sign functionality, encrypt the form and data, and submit the form securely to MDWCC. Some forms are even pre-filled with data from the MDWCC database based on the user profile (e.g., name, address, etc.), thereby eliminating repetitious data entry by constituents.

Once received by MDWCC, the form is processed automatically using Formatta Server. In this process, the form is authenticated and decrypted, the XML form data is stored in MDWCC’s database, the original Formatta form is saved, and a .TIFF image is passed to the Imaging System for archival purposes.

One of the key elements of the solution is the electronic signature technology. Formatta’s Remote Sign technology enables end users to electronically sign forms in real time using their MDWCC-issued authentication credentials and the digital certificate stored on the server. The end result is a signed, legally binding document that can be processed electronically, without the expense of rolling out a PKI system. The Formatta Remote Sign technology and security features were reviewed and approved by State of Maryland authorities before being implemented in this project.

The registered users of the system include over six hundred attorneys and paralegals across the state, with more registering every week. In addition to the increased utilization by attorneys, plans are underway to expand the user base to include insurers and individual claimants in the near future.

Benefits and Impact

MDWCC has realized several benefits from the new system. Automating the processing of submitted forms has reduced the time required to process a form to 24 - 48 hours, representing a 60% increase in efficiency over processing paper forms. The increased efficiency is attributed to the elimination of the document preparation, scanning, indexing, and manual data entry processes. MDWCC intends to capitalize on these increased efficiencies by re-purposing staff to other high-value operations. In addition, since the form data is automatically extracted from the form and saved to a database, the typical lag times in paper processing have also been eliminated, resulting in significantly quicker turnaround with improved data accuracy.

The key benefit of the system cited most frequently by attorneys is enhanced customer service: no more trips to MDWCC offices to file forms. Shorter turnaround times, more accurate data, and timely email notifications of receipt of filed forms are also noted.