Blue Cross Blue Protect of Massachusetts (Blue Cross MA) launched new ladies’s well being choices Monday, together with a reproductive well being care group and a partnership with Maven Clinic, a digital clinic for girls and households.
The Boston-based insurer serves about 3 million members. Its new reproductive well being care group is led by an OB/GYN doctor and will help members with points associated to infertility, maternity, abortion entry and journey. The group may also clarify members’ advantages and the sources out there to them, present steering on medical coverage and supply advocacy help.
“Our specialists share details about coated providers and associated medical insurance policies, and assist members navigate the medical system or hyperlink them with Blue Cross nurse case managers who can present further medical steering on their well being and therapy,” stated Dr. Sandhya Rao, Blue Cross MA’s chief medical officer, in an e-mail.
Via the partnership with New York Metropolis-based Maven Clinic, Blue Cross MA is offering 24/7 help for girls and households. The digital supplier affords household planning help, supply and postpartum help, pediatric help, sleep teaching, psychological well being and vitamin providers, adoption and surrogacy help and menopause specialists.
Blue Cross MA’s absolutely insured employers with no less than 51 staff can add Maven Clinic’s program for no price. Maven Clinic can be an non-obligatory service for self-insured employer clients. Blue Cross MA will supply Maven Clinic to its staff “within the coming months” as nicely, based on a information launch.
Maven Clinic just isn’t the one digital firm supporting ladies and households. Kindbody and Progyny each supply family-building help, Mae and Mahmee supply maternal well being help and Evernow and Midi Well being present menopause care.
Whereas Rao didn’t point out these different firms, she stated Blue Cross MA selected Maven Clinic as a associate as a result of it “gives an end-to-end providing all through the reproductive well being journey from steering to discovering high-quality IVF clinics to supporting members by their menopause journey.” She added that Blue Cross MA was drawn to Maven Clinic’s numerous group of specialist coaches, together with digital doulas, sleep coaches and lactation consultants. As well as, the digital well being supplier has a number of current Blues partnerships.
The launch of those ladies’s well being choices comes at a time when maternal mortality charges within the U.S. are climbing. In 2021, there have been 32.9 deaths per 100,000 stay births in comparison with 23.8 deaths in 2020 and 20.1 deaths in 2019, based on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. For non-Hispanic Black moms, the maternal mortality charge was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 stay births in 2021, 2.6 occasions the speed for non-Hispanic White ladies.
Rao additionally cited a current Deloitte evaluation that discovered that employed ladies expertise larger medical prices and obtain considerably much less worth from their well being advantages than employed males. Out-of-pocket healthcare prices for employed ladies within the U.S. are about $15 billion extra per 12 months than for employed males.
“Girls’s well being is a significant alternative for us to offer providers and help choices that assist ladies throughout their well being journey,” Rao said.
In providing these new ladies’s well being providers, Rao stated she finally goals to assist ladies obtain the care they want.
“Inquiries from members on points associated to reproductive well being have elevated considerably in recent times,” she stated. “We additionally know a lot of our clients need to improve entry to reproductive and ladies’s well being providers and help for his or her staff. Our hope is that these providers assist our members navigate the difficult and fragmented elements of the well being care system all through their lives and guarantee they will get the care and help that meets their wants.”
Picture: damircudic, Getty Photos
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