WellPoint is committed to delivering the best combination of health, care and value in the industry, and to finding new and improved ways to provide real-world solutions that simplify health care processes and improve health care quality.
Plain Language
There is no rule that health care has to be confusing. Yet all too often, instructions and paperwork are issued using language that complicates rather than clarifies. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 50% of American adults (93 million people) have trouble understanding and using health information, and 2 out of three people don’t understand their health insurance coverage. The result of this confusion is that Americans make uninformed health care decisions, get fewer preventive screenings and have higher health care costs.
To address this problem, WellPoint created its Plain Language program – a commitment to communicate clearly, not only with members, but also with employers, brokers and within the company itself.
Clear communication requires an ongoing commitment, but the principles guiding the Plain Language program have achieved some early successes. Specifically, WellPoint affiliated health plans have developed MyHealth Note – an explanation of health benefits that uses everyday words rather than legalese. Since MyHealth note was created in 2009, it has resulted in 50 percent fewer member complaints, a 13 percent increase in people who rated MyHealth Note as “a trusted resource,” and a 12 percent increase in people who said the tool helped improve their overall health.
Availity
Simplification is at the heart of innovation. In health care that means streamlining administrative processes so doctors can focus on providing care rather than filling out paperwork. To accomplish this, WellPoint selected Availity, LLC as a strategic part of its suite of online provider solutions.
Availity offers a secure multi-plan portal at no charge to doctors and other providers to improve efficiencies in the healthcare system by simplifying many aspects of health plan administration – an important step toward advancing affordable patient care. Now, instead of having to access different reimbursement systems for each insurer, providers can use the Availity multi-plan portal and have access to a common claims interface for all participating health plans. Availity’s "one-stop-shop" approach benefits patients, providers and health plans by streamlining the health care administration process and providing a consistent user experience.
WellPoint is proud to join current Availity owners, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Inc., Health Care Service Corporation, and Humana Inc., in making an investment in Availity’s industry-leading multi-plan platform.
HIT/Meaningful use
As the nation moves toward electronic medical records and more widespread use of technology in health care, WellPoint is leading the way by encouraging the adoption and meaningful use of Health Information Technology (HIT) standards to help enhance patient safety, quality of care and the efficiency of care delivery.
Specifically, WellPoint is working to leverage the emerging infrastructure and data standards and is committed to supporting HIT by incorporating components of the meaningful use standards into new and existing programs provided through its affiliated health plans that reward physicians for actions that support high quality care. Current Pay for Performance programs reward physicians for adoption of e-prescribing tools, EMRs, and e-commerce activities, including partners such as Availity.
Most importantly, WellPoint is committed to ensuring that the benefits of HIT are experienced in all areas of the country. That’s why the company will provide HIT financing to rural hospitals in , critical access, or medically underserved areas. This program, which will start in California and Georgia in 2011, allows qualifying hospitals to borrow short term funding in pursuit of satisfying the meaningful use criteria of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.
Integrated Health Network
Improving the nation’s health care delivery system requires everyone to put their heads together. That’s why HealthCore, WellPoint’s outcomes research subsidiary, has convened a collaborative research community of more than 3,500 physicians and other providers actively engaged in conducting and reviewing research, sharing clinical data and putting HealthCore’s research findings into practice.
The Integrated Research Network (IRN) helps HealthCore research be implemented in real-world settings and can be used to improve patient care. The IRN combines claims and clinical data, and then draws on the experience of doctors, pharmacists, clinical researchers and other practitioners to help interpret the research and develop insight for decision makers to make better informed decisions.
IRN physicians and practitioners who agree to be involved in a particular study can work with the IRN on an ongoing basis as subject matter experts, advising on the type of data to be collected, recording clinical information by participating in studies and then in interpreting and publishing the results.
By integrating data with medical practitioners’ experience, the IRN is making health care research more relevant by helping to answer challenging medical questions that can be used in everyday clinical practice.
Care Comparison
Walk into a retail store and you’ll find prices attached to every product, but walk into a hospital or clinic and it is unlikely you’ll find prices on anything. To help individuals better estimate their health care costs, WellPoint’s affiliated health plans developed Care Comparison.
Care Comparison is a first-to-market, innovative comparison tool that discloses real price ranges for 59 specific health care procedures and services. All costs are expressed as a “bundle of care,” meaning all facility-specific charges that are typically a standard part of a procedure or treatment including inpatient, outpatient, and diagnostic tests such as radiology are included in the cost ranges displayed in the tool. Care Comparison also includes facility-specific measures of quality obtained from state, federal and private sources, including measures such as procedure volumes, mortality and complication rates, average length of stay, and compliance with patient safety standards. The Care Comparison tool is designed to provide consumers with an easy-to-use cost and quality comparison to promote informed decision making.
Care Comparison has been implemented in all 14 of WellPoint’s affiliated health plans, and is currently being adopted by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association as the cost transparency standard for all Blue Plans nationwide. Once fully implemented by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Care Comparison will be a 50-state solution serving approximately 100 Million members.
Zagat Survey Tool
Word of mouth has long been the way many people select their doctor. Now, WellPoint is taking that process into the digital age by teaming up with the respected rating company, Zagat, to provide the Zagat Health Survey. The online tool enables members to provide feedback on their experience with their physicians based on a set of distinct criteria, creating a trusted resource to support informed member decision making. The criteria are designed to reflect a consumer’s experience with a physician and not the quality of care received, and members can use a comments section to explain their ratings.
For each network physician, the online entry displays contact information, ratings on a 30-point scale for each of four categories (trust, communication, availability and environment) and the percentage of members who recommend that physician. The most recent comments are displayed first and members have the option to rate the usefulness of comments and report suspicious comments. Members can complete the Zagat Health Survey by logging on to the secure member portal on the Anthem website.
WellPoint’s affiliated health plans have implemented the Zagat Health Survey in its Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, New York, Ohio, and Virginia as well as the Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco metropolitan areas in California. In 2011, WellPoint will begin a phased rollout of the Zagat Health Survey to all remaining WellPoint-affiliated health plans nationwide.
iPhone App / Grocery Guide
Decisions that lead to good health don’t just take place at the doctor’s office. Good health care decision can take place at home and even at the grocery store. That’s why WellPoint’s affiliated health plan in California created an iPhone app called the Grocery Guide. The free mobile application is designed to help health plan members make healthy choices as they grocery shop or prepare their weekly grocery store list before leaving home.
The Grocery Guide contains information on more than 100,000 unique, branded food and beverage products including key nutritional facts and how products compare nutritionally with other products within the same category. The app is designed to simulate grocery store aisles and allows users to browse the virtual aisles to lookup nutritional information about their favorite foods and research the most nutritious food options. Once an item is located, users can build a healthy grocery list by saving products to their favorites and then emailing their customized grocery list to themselves or their friends. The result is healthier, more informed decision-making and a health plan that meets its members’ needs no matter where they are, from the doctor’s office to the dairy aisle.
Healthychat.com
WellPoint is using social media and technology to engage consumers in an open discussion about health care reform. Through Healthychat.com consumers can join a community to address a myriad of health care reform and health benefit questions.
Our goal of this site is to create a straight-forward, honest dialogue with consumers. Users of the site can ask questions and also go to a blog with links to helpful health care reform and wellness sites and related news items. Healthychat.com also has a presence on Twitter and Facebook social media sites.
Tax Calculator
Health care reform has created new opportunities and information for everyone in the health care system. Business owners are trying to keep up and are looking to insurance companies to help as they work to take advantage of key elements of the legislation. WellPoint has joined forces with H&R Block to offer a convenient, comprehensive tool to help small business owners understand the financial impact, and the opportunities, that accompany changes to the health care system. The small business tax calculator tool and tax content were developed by The Tax Institute at H&R Block and may be viewed at www.wellpoint.com/healthcarereform and www.thetaxinstitute.com.
The tax calculator helps small business owners understand the tax credits they are qualified for and allow them to better control and anticipate their health care costs. WellPoint is providing this resource to help small business owners devote more time to running their businesses while adding some clarity so business owners can more easily navigate the health care system.
Virtual Enrollment Center
Providing employees with comprehensive, consistent information during open enrollment can be challenging for many companies. To help businesses reach their employees more easily, WellPoint offers a virtual open enrollment center.
The virtual open enrollment center offers WellPoint customers a valuable tool to engage employees. The site is personalized with the company’s logo and custom video message, and offers an easy to use, interactive 3-D environment. Users can access interactive benefits information from any computer 24/7. Employees can easily find benefit plan summaries, enrollment materials, and links to other related information such as health plan details, provider lists, prescription information and available health programs.
The virtual open enrollment center is also a valuable resource for human resource departments to easily maintain and publish content. The tool gives them the ability to efficiently reach employees, increase visibility within the organization, track the number of visitors and monitor site usage.
