Anthem Blue Cross to Launch Integrated Digital Benefits and Health Engagement Platform
October 18, 2017
Anthem Blue Cross (Anthem) today announced the launch of Engage, an integrated digital health platform that creates a personalized member experience by connecting health plan and benefits data with individual clinical and claims data and information pulled from health and wellness apps. Engage will also help members make better cost and quality decisions when accessing care.
Engage will be available in January to Anthem’s large groups in California and sister plan in Colorado as well as across Anthem’s national accounts business segment -- where some 20 large customers have already signed up for the platform. Anthem’s Engage offers employers access to a single web and mobile digital solution that brings all of their employees’ key health and benefits together in one place, providing employees with personalized messaging based on their individual clinical and claims data. The wellness aspects of Engage will be open to all of a company’s employees, whether they are enrolled in the benefits plan or not, giving employers a way to reach 100 percent of their employee population.
“Engage is born out of Anthem’s commitment to provide an engaging healthcare experience for everyone while sparking personal action and empowerment,” said Brian Ternan, president of commercial business at Anthem Blue Cross. “Rather than contending with a myriad of one-off digital offerings that address only small portions of their health benefits and healthcare or fitness data, Engage brings together an individual’s health and benefits into one location, empowering employees with information and support for better health and better health care decisions.”
Engage is linked with Anthem’s suite of clinical and wellness programs, such as programs for expecting mothers or to help manage chronic conditions. For example, an Anthem nurse will be alerted to connect with a member based on their medical or lifestyle needs and can help members follow their doctors’ plan of care, flagging missed lab tests and providing additional educational resources. It also can give members instant access to telehealth services, saving time and money.
Developed in collaboration with Castlight Health, Engage includes online guidance and support on health care questions, including assistance to locate after-hours health care and information on out of pocket costs for lab tests, procedures and prescription drugs as well as access to information on all of the doctors and hospitals in a member’s network. The digital health platform also connects to fitness trackers and can be used to administer wellness challenges and incentives, helping support a company’s culture of health.
“With Engage, employees have real-time and convenient access to a wide range of personalized tools needed to help them be better healthcare consumers and, ultimately, healthier people,” Ternan said.