Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield

Blue Preferred Health Plan Brochure

Blue Preferred Health Benefit Plan Description

Blue Preferred – Health Insurance Plan Options and Summary

The Blue Preferred health insurance plan from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield offers the most comprehensive protection available of all of Anthems health insurance plans.  The Blue Preferred health plan deductibles range form $500 to $3,000.  Coinsurance for all Anthem Blue Preferred plans is 20% with two options, $1,000 or $2,000 for in-network out of pocket maximums.  This simply means you are responsible from the first dollar you spend on health care until you meet your deductible.  Once your deductible has been met you will be paying 20% of all expenses until you have paid another $1,000 or $2,000 depending on the health insurance plan you choose.  The exception to this is your routine medical office visits and limited preventative care.  Most of Anthems Blue Preferred Plans have $25 co-pay for routine medical office visits.  Routine medical office visits includes physician, mid-level practitioner, and specialist visits.  Anthem’s Blue Preferred plan uses the tiered system for prescription drugs.  There is no separate deductible for prescription drugs.  Generics prescription drug coverage is $15, name brand is $40 and non-formulary drugs are $60.  The life time maximum on the Anthem Blue Preferred Plan is $2,000,000.

SmartSense Health Plan Brochure

SmartSense Health Benefit Plan Description Generic Rx

SmartSense Health Benefit Plan Description Full Rx

SmartSense – Health Insurance Plan Options and Summary

Finding the right balance of health expense liability and health insurance premiums can be a challenging decision.  Anthems SmartSense health insurance plan offers yet one more possibility that may be right for you.  Anthems SmartSense has a 30% coinsurance after your deductible has been met.  Once your deductible has been met you will pick up 30% of all costs until you have paid your out of pocket maximums.  Excepting the liability of 30% of the covered health insurance expenses after deductible may help to keep your premiums in check with your monthly health insurance budget.

Anthems Blue Cross Blue Shield SmartSense health insurance plan has a $7 million lifetime maximum.  Office visits and preventative are also included in the SmartSense health plan.  There is a limit of three annual doctor visits to your primary care provider or specialist per year at a cost of $30 per visit.  Once you have met your 3 visit maximum for office co-pays you will pay the in-network negotiated rate for your doctor visit.  The deductible is waived and no coinsurance required for routine cytological screening (pap test), mammography benefit in accordance with Colorado law, colorectal cancer examination and related laboratory tests, cholesterol screening, immunizations against cervical cancer, influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations, alcohol misuse and tobacco use screening and behavioral counseling or cessation interventions, and prostate cancer screening.

The SmartSense prescription drug coverage provides two levels of coverage.  You may choose a generic-only prescription drug benefit or a more comprehensive drug benefit that provides for brand name drugs with a separate deductible.  This option allows for you to have control over your budget.  If you are comfortable with coverage for generic drugs then you will save money on your monthly health insurance premium.  However, if you need brand name prescription drugs then the SmartSense health insurance plan will allow for it, but at a higher monthly insurance premium.

CoreShare Health Plan Brochure

CoreShare Health Benefit Plan Description

CoreShare - Health Insurance Plan Options and Summary

New for 2010 Anthems CoreShare health insurance plan will provide lower premiums if you are willing to increase your total monetary exposure for covered health insurance expenses.  If you are in good health and live a healthy lifestyle Anthem’s CoreShare may be right for you.  Anthems CoreShare passes more liability to the insured after the deductible has been met by providing a 50% coinsurance with most CoreShare health insurance plans.  Simply put, once you have paid an amount equal to your deductible in covered health insurance expenses you are sharing the cost of additional covered health insurance expenses with Anthem fifty-fifty.  There is a cap to this financial exposure above your deductibe equal to your Calendar Year Out-of-Pocket Maximum.

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s CoreShare plan has a $4 million dollar lifetime maximum.  The CoreShare health insurance plan also has preventative benefits prior to the deductible being met.  The preventative benefits include routine mammograms, Pap, PSA and colorectal screenings.

Anthem’s CoreShare has $15 co-pay on generic drugs and certain name brand drugs.  There is no drug deductible for Tier 1 prescription drug benefits.  You can find out if your prescription drugs are on the list of Tier 1 $15 co-pays by following this link. www.wellpointnextrx.com/Formulary1 There is also Tier 2 and Tier 3 prescriptions after meeting a separate drug deductible of $2,000.

Lumenos HIA and HIA Plus Health Plan Brochure

Lumenos HIA Health Benefit Plan Description

Lumenos HIA Plus Health Benefit Plan Description

Lumenos HSA Health Plan Brochure

Lumenos HSA Health Plan Benefit Plan Description

Lumenos Health Savings Account (HSA)– Health Insurance Plan Options and Summary

The Anthem Lumenos HSA is a consumer driven health plan.  The Lumenos health insurance plans provide incentives for staying healthy.  If you are healthy, stay healthy and live a healthy lifestyle you can be rewarded for it.  You will find similar protection to the other Anthem PPO plans, but with the Lumenos health plans there is an emphasis on preventive procedures prior to your health insurance deductible being met.

Preventative health coverage is covered prior to meeting deductible

Preventative medicine and preventative care can be the key to early detection and the prevention of many health conditions that result from lifestyle choices.  It’s an awareness of what lifestyle choices can affect your overall health.  Anthems Lumenos HSA helps to assist in this approach by providing a thorough list of preventative procedures that are covered prior to meeting your health insurance plan deductible.  If you choose a Lumenos health plan with 0% coinsurance you will pay nothing for the following preventative procedures.

Lumenos HSA

The Lumenos HSA allows you to make tax deductible deposits into a Health Savings Account.  A Health Savings Account is your own savings account that you can set up at your own bank and make deposits on your terms and on your schedule.  You don’t have to contribute to a health savings account on a regular basis; in fact you don’t even have to have one to have the Lumenos HSA health insurance plan.  However, you are required to have a qualified HSA health insurance plan to open an HSA account.  There is an annual limit to your contribution.  For individuals the contribution for the 2010 tax year is $3,050 and for families the 2010 contribution limit is $6,150.  An HSA can be very beneficial because its tax deductible dollars that you set aside for medical expenses.  If you need to use the money for medical expenses you can take it out tax free.  If you don’t the money contributed accumulates until needed.  You can invest the money in the same way as an IRA.  It is also similar to an IRA in that at age 65 you can take it out for any expense, however if you take it out for medical expenses it is totally tax free.  Compare that to any other retirement planning tool.  HSA’s are tax deductible on the way in with tax free accrual of earnings and tax free on the way out for medical expenses.  As we age generally medical expenses will start adding up.  It makes a lot more sense to pay for these escalating medical expenses during retirement with tax free HSA money than it does with taxable 401k or IRA money.

Lumenos HSA Consumer Driven Health Plan

We all buy health insurance with the hope that we never need it.  There is very little incentive in traditional health insurance plans to maintain a healthy lifestyle as a way to save money on health insurance premiums.  With Anthems Lumenos health insurance plans and consumer driven health plans a healthy lifestyle and healthy lifestyle choices directly effect your own personal finances.

When you raise your deductible you lower your premiums.  Money saved by lowering your health insurance premium puts money back in your pocket.  If you have a low deductible on your health insurance plan you are basically saying that you believe you will become unhealthy or sick and therefore are willing to pay the extra premium cost.  Raising your deductible is a belief in yourself that you will remain healthy.  If remain healthy and contribute to your HSA eventually the money saved by increasing your deductible on your health insurance plan could equal your deductible and possibly far more.  Now if you had a major medical event you have the deductible covered by money saved in your HSA, however if you remain healthy you can save the money and use it in retirement.  This is a great reward for staying healthy and is what drives consumerism.  Once you have money saved in your HSA you will want to keep it.  This drives people to shop for the best prices on prescription drugs and other medical expenses.  It is this type of philosophy that the terminology consumer driven health plans was derived.

Tonik Health Plan Brochure

Tonik Thrill-Seeker Health Benefit Plan Description

Tonik Part-Time Daredevil Health Benefit Plan Description

Tonik Calculated Risk-Taker Health Benefit Plan Description

Tonik – Health Insurance Plan Options and Summary

Anthem’s Tonik plans are geared toward the young and healthy.  This holds true from the easy plan design to somewhat hokey marketing.  There are three Tonik health insurance plans that very in coverage only by deductible amounts, the amount of times you can use the doctor co-pays, the cost of doctor co-pays and cost of the health insurance plan.  There are no coinsurance options for any Tonik health plans.  This keeps plan design very simple.  You know that once you meet your deductible everything else is covered at 100%.  Your deductible is you’re out of pocket max for in network covered expenses.  Your lifetime maximum for the Tonik health insurance plan is $5,000,000.  Family coverage is not offered with the Tonik plans.

Dental & Vision Included

The Tonik health insurance plans also provide a limited amount of dental and vision coverage.  After a $25 deductible you will pay nothing for teeth cleaning, exams and x-rays.  You will pay 20% of the cost for minor procedures like fillings.  The plan will pay up to $500 per year toward these types of dental procedures.  Vision benefits include basic lenses for $25 with up to $100 available toward the cost of frames and $80 toward the cost of contact lenses.  This benefit is available every 24 months of plan coverage.  Every 12 months the plan will pay $50 for an eye exam or to help out with the cost of glasses or contact lenses.