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Employee benefits today
June 29, 2016
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Screen Shot from an Actual Blue Cross TeleHealth Visit
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The digital tools used by other businesses are finally starting to be implemented by Health Insurance companies. Some carriers are developing mobile apps that let members review their benefits, get healthcare or analyze claims history on their phone, while others are working on Telehealth benefits. Eventually you will see all the carriers offering both of these benefits.
Please take the time to read through the below items. These new options have some real benefits and have the potential to control claim costs. As we have said many times, the only real way you can control insurance premiums is to control the costs of claims so these digital benefits are a great idea. These digital tools and the opening of urgent care centers, will help lower claim costs and thereby premiums.
You really should encourage your employees to download these applications on their cell phones and use any Telehealth benefits. Although health insurance companies have not completely mastered digital enagagement yet, like financial institutions and retail chains, we expect them to get better every day.
Check out the box below on Blue Cross TeleHealth. Advantage Benefits has Blue Cross for our group plan and we decided to try it first hand this past week. Our daughter had developed a rash that was becoming more irritated, so we went on the desktop after 9:00 PM and found a doctor to take a look at it! It was easy!
If you have any questions please send us an e-mail. We would really appreciate if you would forward this newsletter to anyone else you know who owns a business.
Sincerely,
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Blue Cross MyBlue Member App
Blue Cross has rolled out a convenient new way for members to manage their health care. It's the MyBlue
Member App, an easy-to-use tool that delivers personal health information to members' mobile devices.
With a couple of clicks, members can get access to:
- Interactive ID card
- Doctors visits, claims information and prescription history
- Details on copay amounts
- Spending history
- Finding a doctor and directions to doctors' offices, urgent care clinics, MRI facilities
- ...and more!
Members will be able to download the app at no cost from the App Store or Google Play. We have downloaded it, since we have our own health insurance with Blue Cross, and it is pretty easy to use and informative.
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Harvard-Pilgrim has an App
HPHConnect app free from the Apple or Google app stores to your smartphone, you'll have direct access to your personal account login screen. You'll be just a few clicks away from the following features:
- Provider search
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See a list of your providers (populated from claim history) or search for a provider by current location or zip code
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Benefits and eligibility
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View your member information, including member ID # and PCP, as well as real-time deductible and out-of-pocket limit amounts used
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Personal health record
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See information on visits, procedures, immunizations, illnesses and conditions, medication profile, allergies and health tracker
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Blue Cross Telehealth
This past week-end our daughter had a rash which appeared to be spreading and turning red. It got to the point we were concerned about a possible infection. Our choices were an ER visit or wait for the Pediatrician in the morning.
We decided to try out the Blue Cross Telehealth System. Our 12 year old was able to do all of the following on the desktop:
- log into the system
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| | Our Daughter registering with Telehealth and selecting a doctor for a consultation. |
- Give her BCBS card ID number and our credit card number
- set up an account
- pay out co-payment ($20)
- pick the doctor she wanted to see
- waited in the "waiting room"
- after five minutes, the doctor was live
The doctor reviewed her medical history, asked questions and did her best to see the rash through the computer. In the end she decided that it did not need "emergency" care. It made us feel better to hear that and then we reached out to the pediatrician the next day.
The only drawback was that it was difficult for the doctor to actually see the rash, we almost had to describe it. The alternative, however, would have been an emergency room or an urgent care facility. Overall we were very impressed with the system and highly recommend it.
Blue Cross brochure on Telehealth, click here. Please note there is also an app for Telehealth that you can load on your SmartPhone.
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Client Questions
- One of our employees has been diagnosed with a sickness that requires experimental medication not covered by our health plan's prescription plan? The large pharmaceutical companies have patience assistance programs like Pfizer RxPathways program.
- Despite our HRA plan which reimburses our employees a large percentage of the cost when they are hospitalized, our employees are consistently paying $500 to $1,000 out of their pocket each year? Refer to our FSA newsletter. The administrative rates have dropped on these plans dramatically and the benefits themselves are much more flexible.
In light of the fact we are the middle of the Red Sox season, one of the bigger plays of Game 6 of 1975 World Series, Dewey's catch:
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