News

Flexible Blue^SM:
Health care help for your members and their employees
09/23/05
You've heard it from your membership - the high cost of health insurance is a major threat to their profitability and their ability to be preferred employers. Your members want help. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is pleased to introduce Flexible Blue^SM, a group of new benefit options that will help you help them.

If your members are searching for ways to control health care costs while offering employees a quality health care plan, then Flexible BlueSM can help meet that challenge. Flexible Blue^SM is BCBSM's consumer directed health care offering, available to your members in January 2006. Consumer directed health care (CDHC) is much bigger than any one benefit choice. It is a philosophy of empowerment, giving people the right resources to become better health care consumers.

Through Flexible Blue^SM, you can help your members encourage employees to take personal responsibility and make sound individual health care purchasing decisions. Ultimately, we believe this will result in financial savings for your members and their employees, and it will make a positive impact in the fight against rising health care costs.

Flexible Blue^SM offers affordable choices and, as the name implies, flexibility. It combines the dependability of BCBSM health plans with information and resources employees need to make informed decisions about their health care. Along with a choice of funding options, you'll be giving your members and their employees the support, service and commitment you've come to rely on from Michigan's most trusted name in health care.

Flexible Blue^SM also offers access to Healthcare Advisor^TM - an entire suite of decision-making support resources that provide a powerful, easy-to-use way for employees to manage their health and health care decisions. On top of that, they'll have BlueHealthConnection^®, our best-in-class health care management program, which gives access to personalized health and wellness information. BlueHealthConnection contains a powerful and effective disease management program and includes a 24/7 nurse help line, care management for all levels of disease risk, targeted outreach to members with specific conditions and much more.

What's in Flexible Blue
We've designed Flexible Blue^SM to combine the dependability of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan with the information and resources your members and their employees need. Here are the components of Flexible Blue^SM:

• Flexible Blue^SM FSA - Flexible Spending Account:
  This is a great way for employees to boost their bankroll and reduce taxes. They simply set aside money they think they'll spend for eligible medical expenses throughout the year and taxes will not be deducted from that money. The advantages of the Flexible Blue^SMFSA are clear - paying less in federal, state and FICA taxes, more disposable income, greater control over the spending of benefit dollars, and it's a hassle-free means of paying for medical expenses using tax-free dollars.
• Flexible Blue^SM HRA - Health Reimbursement Arrangement:
  This plan lets employees control how their health care dollars are spent. It combines a health insurance plan with a HRA funded by the employer. It can be used to pay for covered health services under the employee's health insurance. Employees enrolled in the Flexible Blue^SM HRA pay no taxes on the money that goes into the HRA. What's more, employees don't pay for any covered health care expenses until they use all the funds in the HRA. If a member spends all the money in his or her HRA account, he or she must pay any remaining deductible before additional services are paid through the member's health plan. When the deductible is met, employees pay a coinsurance for covered medical and prescription drug expenses up to the health insurance plan's out-of-pocket maximum. After that, the plan pays 100 percent of covered services for the remainder of the benefit period.
• Flexible Blue^SM - Health Savings Account:
  This is a special tax-exempt account created by the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003. The act allows medical expenses to be paid with pre-tax dollars. A HSA works in conjunction with a qualified high-deductible health plan, giving employees more control over their health care decisions. Under the Flexible Blue^SM HSA, your member employers elect a high-deductible health plan, which affords employees the chance to open a Flexible Blue^SM HSA. Employees may contribute to and use money in the account to pay for qualified medical expenses not covered by the high-deductible health plan. Your member employers will also have the option of contributing to the account. Employees will have access to online resources like Healthcare Advisor^TM and BlueHealthConnection to manage their health, health benefits and HSA accounts. Unused money can be rolled over from one year to the next. The rollover feature of the Flexible Blue^SM HSA allows employees to save for future medical expenses and there is no limit on rollovers.

Still the Blues, just easier to use
Flexible Blue^SM HSA and HRA are the first BCBSM products ever linked to a debit card your member employees can use to pay for qualified health care expenses. This card is all employees will need when they visit a provider, pick up a prescription or pay for other qualified health care expenses. They simply present the debit card and payments are immediately deducted from their HSA or HRA accounts.

We are committed to providing new resources to help all BCBSM members successfully manage their health care and all consumer directed BCBSM products will ultimately have these resources and services built in. With Flexible Blue^SM, your members and their employees can begin taking advantage of these resources while reaping the benefit of our major initiatives to expand our Web-enabled services.

We're confident you will see that the addition of Flexible Blue^SM to our product line translates to good business for Michigan businesses and good news for their employees. If your members have told you their hands are tied when it comes to rising health care costs, Flexible Blue^SM offers them choices that can help them contain costs. If your members have told you they are worried about their ability to provide employees with quality health care, Flexible BlueSM connects them to the peace of mind, quality and reliability you expect from BCBSM - not to mention some of the best online support resources available.

Let Flexible Blue^SM help you help your members and their employees. To learn more, contact your BCBSM sales representative or your independent agent.

Flexible BlueSM is a service mark and BlueHealthConnection^® is a registered trademark of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.