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December 2018

Online health services available to Medicare Plus Blue PPO members, starting Jan. 1

Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, our Medicare Plus BlueSM and BCN AdvantageSM plans will offer Blue Cross Online VisitsSM.

Commercial Blue Cross PPO and Blue Care Network HMO members already have this benefit, while the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System group opted out of this benefit for 2019.

Members who use this benefit can virtually connect with a physician, therapist or other health care provider with a two-way, real-time communication, using a:

  • Mobile phone
  • Tablet
  • Computer with a web camera
  • Video conferencing device

This service provides our members with:

  • A real-time, alternative way to get treatment for non-emergency care when their doctor is unavailable
  • Medical and behavioral health services while traveling (available in all 50 states)

Primary physician or behavioral health copayments will apply.

We encourage members who take advantage of this service to inform their primary care physician of the online visit and share their visit summary with their doctor.

You can let your patients know they can access this benefit or get more information by:

Blue Cross Online Visits is powered by American Well®, an independent company that provides online visits for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network members. They aren’t intended to replace a member’s relationship with his or her primary care physician. They’re an alternate way to seek treatment for acute illness when the member’s primary care physician isn’t available or when it isn’t convenient for the member to visit their primary care physician or an urgent care center.

Interested in offering online visits?

If you’re interested in offering online visits for our Medicare Plus Blue members and have the technology to do so, we’ll have the ability to support such visits next year. We’ll be publishing a policy paper in January, outlining our online visit policy and billing codes. The paper will be posted on this page of our website in January.

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 2017 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.