We know that many of our members spend their time juggling competing priorities, such as finding suitable childcare services, locating and eating healthy foods, accessing adequate public transportation and finding a doctor with flexible hours. To help members overcome these barriers, Horizon Neighbors in Health was developed as a partnership between Horizon BCBSNJ and several health systems across the state.
The program offers eligible members:
- Assistance with coordinating care and scheduling medical appointments
- Assistance with accessing transportation, healthy foods and housing
- Help with setting and achieving health goals
- Referrals to community resources, life coaching and skill building
- Help in understanding how their Horizon BCBSNJ benefits work
In addition, through the Horizon Neighbors in Health: Education Works program, we are giving eligible Horizon NJ Health members, ages 18 years and older, an opportunity to earn their high school equivalency diploma at no cost to them. Members are given a custom plan with the tools, resources and information they need, including telephonic coaching to help them stay on track and one-on-one meetings with a coach who helps them remove barriers that may prevent them from getting their high school equivalency diploma.
Social Determinants of Health
Empowering Members to Make Their Own Choices
Through our Supportive Care Program℠, we helped members who were experiencing a serious medical illness or undergoing treatment. This free and voluntary pilot program connected these members to palliative care services that improve the quality of life for both them and their families. Supportive care nurses worked with members, their families and their doctors to help them identify personal care goals, navigate the health care system, understand their benefits and collaborate to address their specific needs. While this pilot program is no longer active, many of the lessons learned have been incorporated into our care management programs that help our members deal with their medical conditions every day.
Supportive Care Program: Helping Members at a Time of Need
Managing Care for the Body and Mind
It is no secret that how we feel affects how we heal. Mind and body health are dependent upon each other. We recognize the importance of treating the health of our members as a whole, and we seek to address our members’ unique needs with more integrated care.
This past year, we began transitioning the administrative and clinical management of the Horizon Behavioral Health℠ program — behavioral health services and benefits — from Beacon Health Options (formerly ValueOptions) to our internal team of professionals. By managing these services and benefits internally, we are in a stronger position to work directly with providers and health systems to improve the integration of physical and behavioral health care for our members.
Our Government Programs business (Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and Fully Integrated Dual Eligible Special Needs Plan) transitioned on December 29, 2019. Our Commercial lines of business transitioned on March 29, 2020.
Improving our Digital Tools
Horizon BCBSNJ remains focused on creating and delivering an improved, member-centric digital experience. In 2019, we were pleased to receive national validation that we’re on the right track with one of our most significant member-facing tools — the Horizon Blue app — receiving a FutureEdge 50 award, which recognizes organizations that use new technologies to push boundaries within their industry.
We continue to improve and expand the app’s capabilities, with links to wearables, such as smartwatches, and connections to a patient’s electronic health records.
By using the Horizon Blue app, members can now:
- Chat live with nurses 24/7 to get medical advice
- Chat with a Horizon BCBSNJ service representative to address benefit or claim questions
- Pay their premiums and set up auto pay (Individual and Medicare members)
- View their benefits and claims and find in-network doctors and hospitals nearby using Apple or Google maps
- Access a digital copy of their Horizon BCBSNJ member ID cards and digital Explanation of Benefits (EOBs)
- Access their Health Savings Accounts, Health Reimbursement Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts
More than 171,000 members downloaded the Horizon Blue app in 2019, bringing the total amount of Horizon BCBSNJ members now using the app to more than 200,000 since its launch.
To download the app, members can simply text GetApp to 422-272, or search for Horizon Blue in the Apple or Google app stores.
Improved Access to Information
In 2019, we made it easier for our members to find their health plan information, determinations and communications through the Horizon Blue app and the secure member web portal, HorizonBlue.com. Members who are registered with our secure member web portal, and who agree to receive electronic communications, now receive their EOB statements electronically. They can access and print EOB statements from the app and web portal weeks before they would have received them in the mail, and can easily find and view an EOB for up to 18 months after it was issued.
Increased Access to Care
Getting blood and other lab work done got easier for many of our members in 2019. LabCorp remains in network for all Horizon BCBSNJ plans, and in 2019, depending on the member’s health plan, members can now visit Quest Diagnostics lab locations at the in-network level of benefits. BioReference continued as an in-network lab for certain plans, and our networks include a number of participating laboratories that provide a variety of specialized laboratory services.
Expanding our laboratory network is part of our continued commitment to giving our members access to quality care while lowering their out-of-pocket costs.