BCBS of SC to Make Integrated Health Platform Available

Columbia, S.C. - BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina plans to electronically integrate personal health records with medical care plans and make these available in real time to BlueCross members and their health care professionals. 
Together with ParadigmHealth, an Upper Saddle River, N.J., provider and integrator of care and disease management services, the two companies will make the new integrated care management platform available to other insurance companies. 
The new platform is scheduled to go into use at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina by the end of this year. S.C. BlueCross also provides administrative services to a number of other Blues plans through its National Alliance division, and it will make this functionality available to those plans and their customers. 
S.C. BlueCross members will be able to access their personal health record, containing clinical and lab information along with their claims data, in the secure My Insurance Manager(SM) section of the company's Web site. If a member has a chronic disease or high-risk condition, such as diabetes, individually targeted wellness information will be automatically included in their personal health record. In the case of a medical emergency, each member will be able to download and print their personal health record. 
The integrated care management platform will enable BlueCross to fully integrate case management, disease management, maternity management, and high acuity complex care management data and dashboards on a single IT platform that will allow a clinical staff to perform daily activities in an application conforming to URAC standards and enhance the member experience.  
URAC is an independent, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that promotes health care quality through accreditation and certification programs. The platform also offers an integrated personal health record and health risk appraisal for use by BlueCross membership.
BlueCross has signed a multi-year agreement with ParadigmHealth to develop and implement the new care management technology platform using BlueCross' real-time transaction expertise. 
"The health payer industry is accelerating the cycle of investment in care management platforms in response to care cost trends, consumerism, and needs of the employer group customer. Our agreement with ParadigmHealth continues our longtime leadership position in technology and care management services for our customers," said David Boucher, BlueCross BlueShield's assistant vice president for health care services. 
Source: PRNewswire