Word & Brown received the following announcement from Blue Shield of California:
We’re adding several new plans to our 2020 medical portfolio to provide more options for your new and renewing small business accounts.
- We’ve added a Platinum PPO with no deductible, $0 primary care physician visits, and $0 tier 1 pharmacy drugs, making it the richest of our plan options.
- Our HMO portfolio now includes a Gold 1000/35 plan filling the gap between the existing gold plans with $500 and $1500 deductibles.
- We’ve also added to our HSA-eligible plan options with a Silver PPO Savings 2500/35%.
- Finally, our Tandem PPO portfolio is significantly expanded so that each of our PPO plan designs are available on the Full PPO and Tandem PPO networks. 2020 Tandem PPO plans, as well as Trio HMO plans, all feature $0 Teladoc copay and $0 first home visit with Heal.
Visit our Product Cycle update page on Broker Connection for more information.
The new plans are available to new and renewing groups beginning with January 1 effective dates. Regulatory approval came after our January renewals were queued, with some impacts:
- Group renewal kits do not include information on the availability of the new plan options.
- Small Group Online Renewal (SGOR) tool does not include the new plans.
We will send a separate communication to renewing groups in early November with the updated plan options. To select any of the new plans for January renewing groups, including the option to offer all 2020 plans, please submit a Request for Contract Change (RCC) form. The RCC, as well as our other enrollment materials – Master Group Application (MGA), Employee Enrollment Application (EEA), etc. – are updated with the new plans and available under Forms and Applications on Broker Connection.
