During a fireside chat hosted by MedCity News at ViVE, Blue Shield of California CEO Paul Markovich discussed the company's decision to largely move away from CVS Caremark as its PBM and partner with several other companies.
The Payer Insights Program at ViVE 2024, in partnership with MedCity News, kicks off day one at the event. This new immersive program will focus on the impact of rising healthcare costs, recent regulatory changes, and innovative payer solutions for optimizing data insights, minimizing costs, and expanding access to care.
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan is working with the GED Testing Service to help members earn a General Educational Development (GED) diploma for no cost. Members can register online and gain access to GED study materials in both English and Spanish.
Blue Shield of California is now offering Mahmee, a maternal health company, to eight employer groups. It comes after a successful pilot in which Mahmee served 80 members.
FOLX Health is now in-network with insurers, including Blue Shield of California. The company serves the LGBTQIA+ community and offers virtual primary care, one-on-one therapy, mental health medication management, hormone replacement therapy, pre-exposure prophylaxis and care navigation.
Blue Shield of California recently switched up its pharmacy benefit model by distributing responsibilities to several different vendors. The model has the potential to increase drug costs, but it remains to be seen, according to Creagh Milford, SVP of retail health at CVS Health.
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Blue Shield of California is cutting many of its ties with CVS Caremark (though not all) and adding four additional partners for its prescription drug benefits. These partners include Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company and Amazon Pharmacy. The changes are needed to disrupt the current broken system, said Salina Wong, senior director of clinical pharmacy programs at Blue Shield of California.
Peter Long of Blue Shield of California discusses how they focus on member experience and ways to improve their overall healthcare needs.
Here is a selection of recent executive hires, exits, promotions and layoffs occurring across the healthcare industry.
Paul Markovich believes in the value of health tech in managing both chronic diseases and in general health and wellness. In this episode, he talks about the company's Wellvolution platform and the digital tools that are offered there to members, now even to those on Medicaid.
We will highlight Build My Health's revenue practice management tools, which could help physician practices add up to $250,000 to their practices.
Blue Shield of California's Wellvolution platform includes programs for mental health, diabetes reversal, addiction and nutrition. Last month, the payer made the platform available to its Medi-Cal members, a process that took two years.
Virta is available this month to all Blue Shield of California members enrolled in preferred provider organization plans for individual and family, fully insured, self funded and Medicare Advantage. The payer has been working with Virta since 2019 when the digital health company joined Blue Shield of California’s Wellvolution, a platform of digital lifestyle apps.
Blue Shield of California's new health plan, Virtual Blue, gives members virtual access to primary care through Accolade and virtual access to specialty care through TeleMed2U. If needed, they can also receive in-person care through the payer's PPO network.
The companies will build their claims processing platform on Google Cloud's infrastructure, leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. The goal of the collaboration is to improve patient and provider experience and reduce spending on administrative processes.
Cigna Ventures and Blue Shield of California contributed to a funding round for Cricket Health, a startup that provides services to help patients identify chronic kidney disease and get support in treatment. The investment was led by Valtruis, a firm that invests in value-based care companies.