Highmark Blue Shield and Lehigh Valley Health Network collaborated on a new health insurance plan called Lehigh Valley Flex Blue designed to lower employers’ health insurance costs and better manage patients’ care.
“Our goal with Lehigh Valley Flex Blue is to provide a cost-effective option for employers that want to provide employees with access to the best care,” said Deborah Rice-Johnson, president, Highmark Health Plan.
Gregory G. Kile, senior vice president of insurance and payer strategies, LVHN, and president and CEO, Populytics, a subsidiary of LVHN, said the companies will share data, resources and other information with Highmark “to ensure that patients are getting the preventive services, tests, follow-up care and education they need in the most efficient manner without duplication of care and unnecessary steps.”
Kile said the collaboration between LVHN and Highmark is “focused on the overall health of the community and improving patients’ care experience, all while lowering the care cost trend.”
Employers and individuals can enroll in Lehigh Valley Flex Blue that is effective Jan. 1, 2017. Customers will have access to the entire Highmark and Blue Card network, which covers 92 percent of doctors and 96 percent of hospitals in the nation.
LVHN includes five hospital campuses in the Lehigh Valley and Luzerne County and is waiting for regulatory approval on proposed mergers with Schuylkill Health System and Pocono Health System.
