Better Coverage for our Little Partners
HealthPartners recently announced an enhancement to our current dental benefit offering — Little Partners Dental — which provides full coverage for services included in employers’ dental plans to kids 12 and under. The Little Partners Dental Benefit is standard on all group shelf plans.
This benefit makes sure children have every opportunity to receive proper dental care especially considering these facts:
- Regular dental visits are a basic preventive step for children to maintain good oral health.
- Dental caries, an infectious disease that damages the structure of teeth, is ranked as one of the most common chronic diseases affecting children in the United States.
- Estimates indicate that more than 51 million hours of school are lost each year due to dental-related illnesses.
- Some parents may delay or even ignore their dentist's treatment recommendations for their children because of unmanageable out-of-pocket costs. This benefit enhancement removes financial obstacles for seeking care.
- Getting a head start on good oral health also protects against more advanced – and more costly – problems such as tooth loss, infection and damage to bones or nerves.
The following chart reflects typical out-of-pocket costs for common procedures based on an industry standard dental plan design.
|
Silver
Filling |
Simple
Extraction |
Surgical
Extraction |
Average fee |
$100 |
$150 |
$250 |
Deductible |
$50 |
$50 |
$50 |
Employer benefit |
80% |
80% |
50% |
Member coinsurance |
20% |
20% |
50% |
Total out-of-pocket costs |
Traditional plan (ded. + co-ins.) |
$60 |
$70 |
$150 |
Little Partners Dental Benefit |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
To learn more please contact your HealthPartners Sales Executive.
HEADLINES
A New Way to Look at healthpartners.com
Since Friday, July 11, HealthPartners members have been seeing a new and improved healthpartners.com.
We’ve talked to our members to learn what’s most important to their online experience. As a result, healthpartners.com has been redesigned so it’s easier to navigate and members can quickly find the tools and services they use most often. All the features and functionality members have come to expect are still available.
We’ve put a fresh face on these areas of healthpartners.com:
- Member/patient homepage for registered members
- Prospective health plan member pages (Group, Individual, Medicare)
- Contact us
- Medical and Dental Clinic pages
- Prospective patients of specialty care
- Regions Hospital
Customized employer Web pages will be updated with the new look throughout the Open Enrollment season. This particular phase of the Web site relaunch will not affect the Employer or Broker portals.
Stay tuned for additional enhancements!
To learn more please contact your HealthPartners Sales Executive.
New Ad Campaign – what a specimen!
 HealthPartners recently launched a new advertising campaign designed to break the mold of healthcare advertising. HealthPartners calls the campaign, "A New Way to Look at Healthcare." The campaign includes unconventional billboard, radio, Internet, viral advertising and "spectaculars" – giant props of common health care items such as tongue depressors, swabs, syringes, pill capsules and specimen cups, placed at locations throughout the Twin Cities.
HealthPartners also commissioned two campaign mascots: Petey P. Cup and Pokey the syringe. Both mascots will appear throughout the Twin Cities over the summer. Petey P. Cup has a presence on YouTube and Facebook.
This campaign is designed to highlight HealthPartners online patient services at healthpartners.com. Online patient services enable patients to schedule an appointment, view medical records, get same-day test results, refill prescriptions, print immunization records and consult with a doctor online.
HealthPartners turned to Twin Cities advertising agency Kerker & Associates Inc. to create the campaign, which included creation of all of the spectaculars. The spectaculars are between 5 and 10 feet high and weigh anywhere from 35 to 225 pounds. Keep an eye out around the Twin Cities for these spectaculars and the rest of the advertising campaign!
Learn more about HealthPartners online patient services and this advertising campaign.
Introducing JourneyWell
HealthPartners has launched JourneyWell, an expanded health and wellness business serving companies nationwide. While 15 companies with more than 16,500 members already take advantage of our health and wellness programs, like Healthy Benefits, JourneyWell will offer these award-winning services to non-HealthPartners health plan customers nationwide.
JourneyWell was developed to enable HealthPartners to better address the growing demand for health and wellness services. JourneyWell can be paired with any health plan in the nation. If you have a HealthPartners health plan, these health and wellness services are available as a part of your health plan.
We look forward to sharing more details about JourneyWell with you. Watch for more information in future issues of Beyond Flash. If you have any questions, please visit aboutjourneywell.com or contact your HealthPartners Sales Executive.
HealthPartners Earns Top Rating from NCQA
HealthPartners has earned another three-year "Excellent" accreditation status, the highest level possible, from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for its commercial managed care and PPO plans.
HealthPartners earned four stars – indicating the highest level of performance in all five areas of measurement:
- Access and Service
- Qualified Providers
- Staying Healthy
- Getting Better
- Living With Illness
To earn NCQA's seal of approval, accredited health plans must meet more than 80 rigorous standards of care and service. Standards address coordination of care, complex case management and disease management programs, interactive consumer tools and health risk assessments. NCQA is regarded as the most rigorous and thorough health plan accreditation in the industry. HealthPartners accreditation has been “Excellent” since 2000.
Learn more about NCQA’s accreditation process.
Underwriting Eligibility and Participation Change
In order to make underwriting guidelines more consistent, we’ve changed our eligibility and participation policy to 75 percent for both small and large groups. This eliminates any confusion that may arise when a group changes from small group to large group or vice versa. Large groups will still have the requirement for an overall minimum of 50 percent participation of all eligible employees.
If you have any questions regarding this policy change, please contact your HealthPartners Sales Executive.
Wisconsin Coverage Changes
Effective July 1, as groups renew, Wisconsin has passed a mandate allowing students on a medical leave (including pregnancy) to remain as eligible dependents on the policy even though they may not be currently taking classes. This policy applies to all fully insured Wisconsin plans and self-insured public entities.
If you have any questions regarding this policy change, please contact your HealthPartners Sales Executive.
Two-tier vs. Three-tier – Thank you for your input! Based on feedback from several of you and your clients, we will be allowing employers who currently have two-tier dental rates to remain on this rate structure at renewal. For groups renewing on or after September 1, this will happen automatically. If you have groups renewing prior to September 1, please contact your HealthPartners Account Executive to request two-tier rates.
Underwriting – Don’t forget that we moved away from standardized renewal pricing on July 1. This means that renewal prices will vary from group-to-group, even if they have the same plan. The dental rate sheets on our Web site are only for new business only.
Product portfolio – We’ve revised and simplified our dental product portfolio for small employers to make it easier to understand and sell. Most notably, we’ve converted all of our plans from a primary clinic model to either an open access model or a Distinctions (tiered) model.
Selling value – As you review the dental renewals for your clients, don't forget that we have added several exciting new benefits that will deliver more value to our members including:
- Little Partners Dental Benefit. This includes coverage for most services included in your dental plan that are performed by network providers for children 12 and under at 100 percent, with no deductibles, no coinsurances and no annual maximum.
- Enhanced Periodontal Benefit. Additional coverage above and beyond standard plan benefits are offered, such as additional cleanings and other necessary periodontal services, to pregnant and diabetic members.
- Dental Implants. This benefit includes coverage of prosthetics for implants, as well as the surgical portion of treatment.
If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact your HealthPartners Sales Executive.
Frequent Fitness Update
Our Frequent Fitness program continues to grow. Members now have even more choices and chances to save money while achieving a healthy lifestyle. Now, members who enroll or are enrolled in the Frequent Fitness program will have access to more than 750 locations in HealthPartners service region.
The Frequent Fitness program offers fully insured members (two per household) up to a $20 reimbursement for working out 12 times a month.
New locations as of July 1 include:
1. Fitness Crossroad – St. Anthony
2. Jo's Gym – Belle Plaine
3. Houston Fitness Center – Houston
4. Victory Fitness – Oak Park Heights
Learn more about Frequent Fitness.
Network Updates
As our client base and membership continues to expand, so does our network. In fact, we’ve recently added a large number of providers. We’re committed to providing access to the providers your clients demand – nationwide. No matter where your clients live, work or travel, we’ve got them covered. Recent additions include:
Medical – Iowa
Hawarden Family Medical Center – Hawarden
Medical – Minnesota
Murray County Clinic Fulda – Fulda
Deer River Meridian Medical Clinic – Grand Rapids
Medical – North Dakota
New Town Health Center – New Town
Trinity Community Clinic – Garrison, Mohall
Valley Community Health Centers – Larimore, Northwood
Medical – South Dakota
Avera Internal Medicine Specialists – Aberdeen
Medical – Wisconsin
Red Cliff Community Health Center – Bayfield
Dental – Minnesota
Amundson Family Dentistry, PA – Cottage Grove
Comfort Dental, LLC – New Hope
Excel Dentistry, PLLC – St. Louis Park
Family & Cosmetic Gentle Dentistry, LTD – Coon Rapids
Winsted Gentle Dental Care, PLLC – Winsted
Try out our new search function to see just how easy it is to find a network provider quickly and simply. Provider Search.
Library: Quick Links to Great Resources
Important Contacts
Our Group Medical Plans
Our Group Dental Plans
Our Individual and Medicare Plans
Our Achieve SM Health Improvement Programs
Our CareSpan SM Disease Management Programs
Direct Connect to Broker Portal
|
