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Sponsored by: Anthem
July 15, 2024

How Your Health Plan Can Improve Your Employees’ Whole Health

Dear Connecticut Business Community,

Some would describe Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s business as health insurance or even healthcare, but we are ultimately in the business of health. Health means more than the absence of illness – whole health encompasses physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial well-being.

Your health plan should empower your employees to live their healthiest life and enable them to access healthcare services whenever and wherever they need them. For example, tools such as telehealth can deliver convenient, 24/7 access to care. Remote patient monitoring can help employees manage chronic conditions at home. At Anthem, our health plans include a range of well-being tools and services through our mobile app Sydney Health, such as a nutrition tracker, symptom checker, and virtual care visits. Our app also makes it easier for members to budget their healthcare dollars and see spending through their health savings accounts or health reimbursement accounts. Through our digital capabilities we can provide a more personalized healthcare experience for members and help them become better healthcare consumers.

Taking care of your mental health is an important part of your overall health, and that’s why many health plans offer integrated behavioral healthcare. Here is where having access to a comprehensive network with a variety of care options and care settings is crucial because treatment that works well for one person may not work as well for another. At Anthem, we have been working to bring innovative care providers into our network, including virtual, at-home, outpatient, and residential behavioral health providers. Anthem was the first health plan to work with Aware Recovery Care in Connecticut, a 52-week in- home substance use disorder treatment program, nearly 10 years ago. Recently, we welcomed InStride Health, which provides treatment for mental health conditions like anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder for children and young adults ages 7 to 22, to our network. We continue to add new behavioral health providers to our network regularly.

Actively encouraging preventive care and screenings is crucial to supporting your employees’ overall health and catching emerging health issues early. Employee education about their wellness options is a powerful tool. In addition to our robust network of primary care providers in Connecticut, we also offer Anthem Link Virtual First plans that integrate a digital health platform and virtual care options, allowing members to access care on their own time, leading to increased primary care utilization and improved preventive care.

Ninety percent of annual healthcare expenses are attributed to people with chronic and mental health conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and improved care management is a critical tool in supporting better health for your employees. Your health plan can identify at-risk employees and their gaps in care, and partner with them to establish their healthcare team to support their wellness journey. This approach can lead to fewer emergency room visits, lower hospitalization rates, increased preventive screenings, and employees receiving the right care at the right place at the right time.

Improving whole health also means ensuring members have access to affordable care. One example of how we do this at Anthem is by working closely with care providers to promote value-based healthcare delivery and payment models that reward doctors and hospitals for improving health outcomes instead of the volume of services provided. In short, the model pays for the quality of care delivered rather than the quantity. This collaboration has proven to deliver better overall health outcomes for members and ultimately lower cost trends.

With Anthem’s nearly 90-year history in Connecticut and the power of the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield network, we are here to serve as a connector to health resources and tools that enable individuals to live healthier lives. Our team in Wallingford is happy to talk with you about how we can work together to improve the whole health of your employees.

In good health,
Lou Gianquinto, President,
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield
in Connecticut