With the new app, plan members can find nearby, in-network doctors, hospitals and urgent care facilities and follow claims from billing to payment.

A Blue Cross plan that serves about two million plan members in the Pacific Northwest has upgraded its mobile app as part of a broader program to add features to its digital healthcare portal.

Premera Blue Cross, a health insurer based in Mountlake Terrance, Wash., with plan members in Washington and Alaska, has rolled out a new Apple and Android app with improved features. The plan first launched an app in 2012 but the app “didn’t evolve and it wasn’t up to par,” says Premera director of mobile products Neil Lazo.

The app makes it easy and convenient for our customers to carry their healthcare information with them.

With the new app, which Permera spent a year planning and building before launching in January, plan members can find nearby, in-network doctors, hospitals and urgent care facilities and follow claims from billing to payment. Plan members can also track their deductible for the year and use the app to serve as a mobile identification card.

“We built the app following extensive testing with our customers, with the goal of providing a user experience that is simple and easy,” Lazo says. “The app makes it easy and convenient for our customers to carry their healthcare information with them.”

The updated app gives a Premera member better and faster ways to track their health benefits, Lazo says. Plan members that have downloaded the app can now use mobile tools to view individual and family deductibles for medical and dental care, check the status of a claim or get directions to a doctor’s office from a new Find Care search tool. Premera has about 38,000 providers in its network, the health insurer says.

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Premera won’t say how many users have downloaded the new app or much about its other digital healthcare portal metrics. But the app is one part of a bigger initiative by the plan to revamp its online tools to deliver to member faster and more personalized information, Lazo says. For example, Premera Blue Cross is looking to add digital doctor visits, or telehealth, at some point this year.

Other enhancements include launching a virtual “medicine cabinet” that will give plan members access to the list of their current and past medications and an ability to virtually chat with their doctor all within the Premera app. For plan members in Alaska, Premera just introduced Premera Pulse, a new series of self-service web tools that lets users access their medication list and medical history or schedule doctor appointments.

With Premera Pulse members can find in-network care, schedule appointments, access medication lists, get reminders about preventive care visits, set up appointment reminders and rate doctors after visits

About 9,260 members have used Premera Pulse and booked more than 390 appointments. Premera Pulse was built using some technology and services from Vim, a San Francisco healthcare technology company.

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“What makes this product unique is that the text messages customers receive are based on the customer’s specific health plan and history,” says Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska president Jim Grazko.

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