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June 2017

Blue Cross wellness programs help your patients improve their health

Blue Cross® Health & Wellness programs are making a difference in your patients’ lives. Our wellness programs include the Blue Cross Health & Wellness website, powered by WebMD®, along with additional programs to address tobacco use, weight, nutrition, physical activity and much more.

Website provides members with a variety of online health resources
The Blue Cross Health & Wellness site features a variety of health and wellness resources designed to help your patients learn their health risks and discover ways to live a healthier lifestyle. It also provides a centralized location for them to keep track of health measures and wellness program requirements. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan members can reach the site by logging in to their member account at bcbsm.com.

These site features and online tools and resources can help your patients better monitor their health and get healthy, stay healthy or manage a chronic condition:

  • Device and App Connection Center – Allows your patients to sync more than 200 fitness and medical devices, along with health-specific mobile apps
  • Personal Health Record – Combines lab data imported from Blue Cross and Blue Care Network qualification forms with self-reported data, medical test results, conditions, medications, doctor visits, allergies and more. Your patients can even upload and store medical documents.
  • Interactive online health assessment – Provides your patients with information about their health risks and what they can do to improve their health
  • Digital Health Assistant programs – Help patients make small behavior changes and meet their health goals
  • Health Trackers – Help your patients track their exercise, steps, diet, mood, pain, tobacco use and more
  • Pregnancy Assistant – Tool for expectant mothers and their supporters that features a dashboard of quizzes, checklists, articles, videos, activities and more
  • WebMD Health TopicsSM – Allows patients to search for specific health information
  • Professionally monitored Message Board Exchanges – Allow patients to interact with others and find credible answers to their health questions
  • Quizzes, slide shows, videos, recipes, calculators and more

Coaching programs help members see positive results
Our Lifestyle Coaching and Tobacco Cessation Coaching programs provide eligible members with the tools and resources they need to make healthy changes. Specially trained health coaches work with members using the Motivational Interviewing behavioral change technique.

Blue Cross members are usually stratified into these coaching programs based on data from their online health assessment or the Blue Cross Qualification Form. Lifestyle and Tobacco Cessation health coaches then use imported and self-reported data, along with programs goals, to help patients achieve health improvement targets.

Our coaching programs are working:

  • More than 73 percent of eligible members have engaged in the moderate-risk Lifestyle Coaching program.
  • More than 41 percent of those who have completed the Tobacco Cessation Coaching program remain tobacco-free.

One member said that the Tobacco Cessation Coaching program saved her life. When she first received a call from a health coach, she had no desire to quit smoking. But as she talked to him during a series of phone calls, she realized the bad choices she was making with continuing to smoke.

“I have been smoke-free for three months and 20 days. If it wasn’t for Vince (her health coach), I would probably not see my grandbabies for as long as I hope to,” she said. “You gave me some years back to my life, so I can’t thank you enough.”

Lifestyle Coaching and Tobacco Cessation Coaching are available only to members whose employer has purchased those programs. However, all members can access the Digital Health Assistant coaching programs on the Blue Cross Health & Wellness website. These online programs emulate the telephone coaching program. Programs are available for weight, exercise, nutrition, tobacco cessation, stress and mood.

Physician Health Screening program enhances patient interaction

You’ve probably been asked by some of your patients to complete a Blue Cross qualification form. This is part of the Physician Health Screening program designed to help our members establish relationships with their doctors and identify emerging health issues as early as possible. Again, qualification form data is uploaded into members’ online Personal Health Record and online health assessment, which is used to help stratify members into coaching programs.

Want to learn more?
Contact Susan Okonkowski at sokonkowski@bcbsm.com or call 313-448-7503 to schedule a webinar for your office.

WebMD Health Services is an independent company supporting Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan by providing health and wellness services.

No portion of this publication may be copied without the express written permission of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, except that BCBSM participating health care providers may make copies for their personal use. In no event may any portion of this publication be copied or reprinted and used for commercial purposes by any party other than BCBSM.

*CPT codes, descriptions and two-digit numeric modifiers only are copyright 2016 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and
independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.