Innovating for healthier customers

As a consumer-focused company, we not only listen to the feedback we receive from our customers, but also make investments to meet their needs. And our customers tell us they want cost and quality information to help them make better health care decisions.

We have continued to improve and expand the Care Comparison tool, which now provides our customers with detailed cost information for 102 common medical procedures, available through our online provider finder. Armed with the information they need to make informed health care decisions, our affiliated health plan members can now easily find total estimated costs for a procedure and calculate estimated out-of-pocket expenses based on their plan benefits.

Through our subsidiary AIM Specialty Health℠, we’ve also developed the Imaging Cost and Quality Program, which provides cost and quality information to affiliated health plan members whose physicians have recommended they receive an imaging service, such as an MRI or CT scan. Members who switched to a high-quality, lower-cost facility were able to save an average of nearly $1,000 in the cost of those services.

A national network of doctors and hospitals is important to consumers when purchasing health plan coverage—and that extends to dental coverage too. Through the national Dental GRID, developed by and for Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, dental members will have access to more dentists than ever before.

The Dental GRID offers seamless access to dentists in participating plans’ local Blue network and WellPoint’s UniCare network. The strength of these networks, coupled with freedom from access fees, provides the more competitive pricing our customers have been asking for. Clients continue to receive account management, customer care, claims processing and all services from their home Blue plan—but now have access to other participating Blue plans’ dental networks nationwide. For large multi-state and national employers, this means one competitive dental health care solution for all of their employees.

When it comes to choosing health care benefits, employers want choice and flexibility. They want to offer choice to their employees while retaining control over how much they spend. We are poised to deliver with a defined contribution approach and cutting-edge technology available through Bloom Health.

With this approach, an employer deposits a pre-defined dollar amount into an employee’s pre-tax account. Then, Bloom’s sophisticated technology uses the employee’s responses to a series of questions on their health, financial status and risk tolerance to generate a customized profile. Bloom identifies the health benefit options available through the Bloom platform that best match the employee’s expressed needs, and the employee enrolls in the product of their choice. Employers can also use this innovative approach for retired employees who are moving from employer coverage to an individual Medicare plan.

The Bloom Health solution helps us respond to our customers’ needs with the changing dynamics in the marketplace—resulting in more certainty for employers and more empowered employees.