Blue By Design
What is Consumer-Directed Health Care?
The philosophy of CDHC (consumer-directed health care) is to empower and encourage
employees through cost sharing, individual purchasing choices and educational
tools, allowing them to make better health care decisions.
Blue by Design is the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS)
CDHC option. Under this option, member responsibility for his
or her health care is coupled with the employee health benefit
plan. The intended outcome is to help contain rising health care
costs, along with financial savings for both the consumer and
the employer.
There are three parts to CDHC:
1) a comprehensive health benefits plan
2) a funding mechanism
3) program support along with health and wellness tools.
Blue By Design
1) These program options can be used by the employer
to help curtail rising health insurance costs.
- Increase employee out-of-pocket (deductible, shared payment or copay) amounts
- Increase employee premium contribution
- Triple Option programs
- Benefit enhancements
- Benefit limitations (not paying for specific services)
- Web site access that offers health information as well as secure online claims status information and online provider directory
2) These funding arrangements are available from SelectAccount (our consumer-directed health care program administrator). Under these arrangements, the employee’s personal account information is available online at a secure Web site.
- Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) - (Available to employers with five or more employees)
- Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA)
- Health Savings Accounts (HSA)
3) Available Resources
These are some of the tools available to BCBSKS employers and members as
a standard service of their benefit program. These tools allow members
to educate themselves in an effort to become better health care consumers.
- Health Care Cost Calculator
- Online Provider directory (find a contracting doctor/hospital)
- Member newsletters
- Summary of Claims Processed (SOCP) documents - available in our secure section
- Health care management coaches
- General wellness information
- Personal online claims status and coverage information
- Links to other related sites
In addition, dedicated group benefit consultants will work with an employer to develop a health insurance plan, through a variety of out-of-pocket and benefit options, to best meet the employer’s needs.