Your Health Alliance Launches November 5

Easier access to commonly used  forms and resources is coming, with the ability to order sales materials online and more.

Here’s what to expect.

• After November 5, when you log in to Your Health Alliance as a broker, you’ll need to create a new account. You’ll enter an email address as your new user ID and an 8-character password for increased site security.
• If you currently have access as a broker and employer group, you’ll update your account. Moving forward, you’ll only need one user ID to see all of this information.
• When you choose Update Account and log in, simply add your employer groups to your new account. This way, you don’t need to register an account for every group you currently manage. This should transition your current information seamlessly. You must know your current user ID and password to update your account.

After November 2, Customer Service will not be able to give you your current user ID and password if you’ve forgotten it. In this case, you’ll need to create a new account from the log in page.

Ask Sinéad

What is Health Alliance doing to manage health care reform?

We developed a strategic plan for addressing the ongoing changes health care reform brings to our industry. This plan includes organizing 3 focus areas, or buckets, to help concentrate our efforts where and when needed.

• New Marketplace – This bucket works on product design, consumer outreach, member engagement, and brand management.
• Medical Economics – The members on this team take government mandates, like Essential Health Benefits, and strive to make them affordable.
• Government Interface – This team monitors federal and state regulations and changes, and makes sure we implement operational changes in line with those regulations.

With this structure, we’ll continue to address changes effectively and timely.

Have a question for Sinéad? Email her at HCRAnswers@healthalliance.org.

Sinéad Rice Madigan is our director of government relations.

Medicare Part D Creditable Coverage Notice Mailed

Each year, employers are required by law to notify their Medicare-eligible employees of whether their current plan is considered creditable coverage as outlined in Medicare Part D requirements.

Medicare-eligible employees include those currently on Medicare or those who will turn 65 within 3 months after October 15. On behalf of our employer groups, we recently mailed the appropriate coverage certificate to employees by October 15. In addition, we mailed employers a creditable coverage certificate based on their plan’s coverage.

Contact your client consultant with any questions.

Midlands Choice PPO Network Noted on ID Cards

As a reminder, our network agreement with Midlands Choice (with providers in all 99 Iowa counties and beyond) goes into effect November 1 and applies to all our PPO groups.

Our PPO group members based in Iowa will receive new health plan ID cards by November 1. All other fully-insured PPO group members will get a new ID card upon their plan renewal date, starting with November 1, 2012 renewals.