Reprinted from THE AIS REPORT ON BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD PLANS,
a hard-hitting independent monthly newsletter on new products, market share,
strategies, conversions, financing, profitability and strategic alliances of
BC/BS plans. (Not affiliated with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association or
its member companies.)
By Steve
Davis, Managing Editor
November 2014 Volume
13 Issue 11
Near the end of last year’s
open-enrollment period, a man clad in neon-yellow overalls showed up at an
enrollment event sponsored by Philadelphia-based Independence Blue Cross. It
turns out he was a baggage handler at the airport who decided to enroll in
health coverage after his shift ended. Later that day, after the next shift
ended, the room was full of men in neon-yellow overalls. “We learned firsthand
that word of mouth is huge,” says Paula Sunshine, vice president of sales and
marketing for consumer business. For the 2014 plan year, she says Independence
and its affiliate in New Jersey enrolled more than 285,000 people in individual
policies sold through public exchanges.
Independence says its Silver Proactive
three-tier-network plan was one of the more popular products last year.
Enrollees have first-dollar coverage for hospitals and doctors listed on the
“preferred tier.” The benefit structure helps ensure that enrollees can afford to
seek medical care. “It was fantastically successful,” Sunshine says.
Beyond word of mouth, Blues plans tell The
AIS Report that they will rely on a variety of strategies — including
alliances with other companies — to extend their reach and drive more enrollees
to public insurance exchanges during the upcoming enrollment period. They also
are placing considerable emphasis on re-enrollment. But carriers must wait
until Nov. 5 to begin marketing their exchange-based products. In a notice to
carriers, CMS restricts insurers from marketing exchange products until user
agreements — the final products and rates — have been signed and approved. For
the federally facilitated exchanges, that won’t occur until at least Nov. 5.
Blues Plans Align With Outside Groups
Beginning on Nov. 15, more than 3,300
State Farm insurance agents and licensed team members in five states will sell
individual Blue Cross and Blue Shield policies as part of an alliance with
Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC). HCSC operates Blues plans in Illinois,
Oklahoma, Montana, New Mexico and Texas. The State Farm team will market
policies sold on and off of the exchanges.
“One of the goals of the Affordable
Care Act is to reach the uninsured. But not all uninsured people are in large
urban areas,” says HCSC spokesperson Greg Thompson. “State Farm has storefronts
throughout the country. It’s a good way to broaden our reach.”
Thompson says State Farm agents will go
through “a pretty extensive” training process to get them up to speed with
health insurance coverage and the exchanges. The program is an expansion of
HCSC’s relationships with its existing brokers and agents.
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield
will host temporary enrollment centers in nine Goodwill Industries of Arkansas
stores during the full enrollment period — Nov. 15, 2014, through Feb. 15,
2015. The self-contained kiosks will be staffed with licensed agents who will
visit one-on-one with guests, explaining the health plan options available to
them and providing onsite enrollment assistance, says spokesperson Max
Greenwood. This will be the second year the Blues plan has partnered with
Goodwill. The two groups will promote the locations through social media,
digital media and in-store displays.
As it did last year, Independence
partnered with CVS Health and will be present at its Project Health events this
year. More than 350 Project Health events will be held at CVS/pharmacy
locations across the country beginning in November. In addition to information
about the exchange, participants will receive free health screenings,
consultations with bilingual (English and Spanish) nurse practitioners or
physician assistants and referrals to low- or no-cost medical facilities. “It’s
a great opportunity to talk to people about their health coverage…when they’re
already thinking about their health,” says Sunshine. Independence also is
printing messages on pharmacy receipts at CVS locations.
NC Blues Hits the Road
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas
City says it has partnered with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The Kansas City Blues
plan sells coverage in 30 counties in Missouri and two densely populated Kansas
counties.
Along with promoting exchanges via its
retail stores, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina redesigned its mobile
unit to offer more information about coverage options. The mobile unit is
already on the road and has been at NASCAR and other sporting events and
community gatherings throughout the state. The unit is staffed by employee
volunteers. It also has iPads loaded with information about plan offerings. To
reach the Latino community, the North Carolina Blues plan intends to have a
presence at ethnic festivals, church events and markets in Latino
neighborhoods. To reach the so-called “young invincible” population, the Blues
plan will hold events at community colleges and other places young people go.
Blues plan operator WellPoint, Inc.
says it recently launched a member campaign to help educate individuals about
the basics of navigating a health insurance plan. Among other things, it
includes information about basic insurance terminology. As new Latino members
signed up for coverage in late 2013, it became increasingly apparent that many
of them were confused by new words and definitions associated with health
insurance, says spokesperson Jerry Slowey. “They didn’t understand what their
new ID was used for or when to utilize it, how to access preventive care
services offered to promote healthy living, how to understand the elements of
an explanation of benefits or how to find a doctor through the member portal.”
WellPoint, which operates Blues plans in 16 states, also has invested in a new
streamlined search tool that allows consumers to see if their doctor or local
hospital is in a plan’s network, and save their search results for later use.
Carriers Ramp Up Call Centers
Last year, the Kansas City Blues plan
contracted with some of its brokers to head three outside call centers staffed
with 52 representatives. This fall, about 80 reps will man the phones to answer
questions. “We had a hard time keeping up with call volume last year, and this
year it will be higher with current customers and prospects,” says Ron Rowe,
vice president of sales at the Kansas City Blues plan. The Blues plan also will
have more sales staff working at its two retail locations. The carrier relies
on a network of 3,000 independent brokers — about 1,000 of whom serve the
individual market.
Independence says it will triple its
telesales staff and double the number of customer service representatives who
work directly with individual consumers. “We learned last year, when there is
no human resources person standing between you and your coverage, folks have
more questions and calls are more complex and longer,” Sunshine says.
Premera Blue Cross says it is extending
customer service hours and will operate from 8 am until 7 pm Monday through
Friday and from 9 am until noon on Saturdays.
Is Re-enrollment More Critical Than
Enrollment?
Blues plans say they are spending a
great deal of energy determining how to ensure that existing members remain
enrolled. CMS recently began sending out millions of re-enrollment notices to
people who purchased coverage through federally facilitated exchanges. To
ensure uninterrupted coverage, insured consumers have until Dec. 15 to choose a
new plan with coverage that begins on Jan. 1
For the 2014 plan year, HCSC sold about
1.2 million policies on and off of the exchanges — between 80% and 90% of those
enrollees were new HCSC customers. The company says those members will be
encouraged to have their federal subsidy redetermined for the 2015 plan year.
Members who received federal premium
subsidies will receive an identical subsidy if they opt to be automatically
re-enrolled. That could mean substantially higher out-of-pocket costs if
premiums for the existing product increase substantially. Members who actively
shop for coverage will have their subsidy based on the second lowest-cost
silver plan for 2015, Rowe explains. “In some cases, we’ll be encouraging them
to shop. We’re introducing some new lower-cost products that might be a better
deal for them. We’re telling them that we basically have to start from
scratch.”
Rowe predicts that up to 20% of small
employers in his market will move their employees to the public insurance
exchange for 2015. This year, about 5% of employers dropped coverage and
encouraged workers to find coverage on the exchange. Expected rate hikes in the
small-group market will prompt more employers to drop coverage. “We are hearing
about a lot of 40% rate increases from some competitors.”
Through WellPoint’s
ChangeMyCoverage.com, current members can navigate through the renewal process
with a “hands-on” approach led by a team of health plan advisors, says Slowey.
Independence Blue Cross has come up
with a five-point pre-enrollment checklist to check off before logging on to
HealthCare.gov. Points include ensuring they know their login name and password
and have the most updated version of their computer browser before going online
to find coverage.
http://aishealth.com/archive/nblu1114-02?utm_source=Real%20Magnet&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=56807018
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