Blue Cross of California Awarded Nearly $2 Million For Telemedicine Program; Demonstration Project to Bring Specialist Care to State's Rural Communities.WOODLAND HILLS, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Oct. 20, 1998--Blue Cross of California Tuesday announced it was awarded $1.8 million to establish a telemedicine program designed to increase access to health care services for Californians living in rural communities. Additionally, Blue Cross, Delta Dental Delta Dental is the largest and oldest dental plan system in the United States. The Delta Dental Plans Association is comprised of 39 independent Delta Dental member companies operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. and Vision Services Plan (VSP VSP - Very Simple Prolog+. ) were granted $250,000 in rate enhancements to establish a statewide seamless network that serves seasonal and migrant farm workers, fishing and forestry workers and Native Americans. The awards were granted by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB MRMIB Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (California) ), as part of the Healthy Families Program, a new state-sponsored insurance program providing low-cost health, dental and vision coverage for children of low-income working families. To extend access to health and specialty care for people living in rural communities, MRMIB established the Rural Health Demonstration Project awards. Of 14 grants awarded, Blue Cross of California was the only health plan to receive an award under the Geographic Access solicitation. "We're excited about the opportunity to help increase access to high quality specialty and health care services for Californians living in these communities," said John Monahan, general manager, Medi-Cal and Healthy Families Programs, Blue Cross of California. "This project is particularly significant as we believe that a successful demonstration project can serve as a model throughout the rest of the country." Telemedicine combines computer and telecommunications technology with traditional physician's tools to create an electronic package of information on a patient's medical status. This information can then be shared with a specialty physician through a live videoconference or e-mail for a second opinion or diagnosis. Approximately 3.8 million people live in California's rural communities. Often, these communities have been medically underserved due to the concentration of specialty care and health education in urban and suburban neighborhoods. The telemedicine grant is expected to fund approximately 20 new sites statewide, as well as expand telemedicine capabilities in approximately 15 others. Through its program partners, University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis, commonly known as UC Davis, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, and was established as the University Farm in 1905. Health Systems, Cedars Sinai Medical Center and the Northern Sierra Rural Health Network, the telemedicine grant will enable Blue Cross to bring specialty services to rural communities throughout the northern, central and southern parts of the state. Blue Cross of California will utilize the telemedicine expertise and infrastructure developed by UC Davis to expand telemedicine capabilities in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern . UC Davis currently has 17 telemedicine sites that include oncology, orthopedics, dermatology, psychiatry, urology urology Medical specialty dealing with the urinary system and male reproductive organs. It traces its origin to medieval lithologists, itinerant healers who specialized in surgical removal of bladder stones. and other specialties. Additionally, a portion of grant funds will be used to develop and expand telemedicine capabilities of 15 sites in the Northern Sierra Rural Health Network in Lassen, Plumas, Modoc, Nevada, Sierra and Shasta Counties. Through its partnership with Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Blue Cross will develop a Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, telemedicine network. "This is a great opportunity for all of our groups to pave the way for a new way of delivering medical care to those without current access," said Spencer K. Koerner, MD, Director of Telemedicine and International Health at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. "It is the model of the future." "In order for telemedicine to advance, a major managed care company must embrace it as a viable, additional tool to complement the efforts of the rural provider," said Thomas Nesbitt, MD, Medical Director, Regional Affiliations, Rural Health and TeleHealth, UC Davis. "We're pleased that Blue Cross is ready to take telemedicine to this next historic plateau." Special Populations In addition to the telemedicine grant, Blue Cross will receive rate enhancements to help serve Special Populations members. Currently, seasonal and migrant farm workers, fishing and forestry workers and Native Americans who are non-stationary must disenroll and re-enroll their children in the Healthy Families Program when moving to another county. This rate enhancement creates a statewide Healthy Families combination available to all seasonal and migrant farm workers, fishing and forestry workers and Native Americans comprising Blue Cross, Delta Dental and VSP. Blue Cross of California has a long-standing history of providing access to quality care for underserved communities. Blue Cross was recently awarded a major contract for Healthy Families -- the only health plan to participate in all 58 California counties. Additionally, Blue Cross Medi-Cal managed care programs are available in Alameda, Contra Costa Contra Costa can refer to:
Blue Cross of California, with nearly 4.4 million medical members, is the California operating subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks Inc., one of the nation's largest publicly traded managed care companies. WellPoint serves the health care needs of 6.8 million medical and over 23 million specialty members nationally. WellPoint offers a broad spectrum of quality network-based health products including HMO HMO health maintenance organization. HMO n. A corporation that is financed by insurance premiums and has member physicians and professional staff who provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, , PPO PPO abbr. preferred provider organization PPO Managed care Preferred provider organization, see there Infectious disease Pleuropneumonia-like organism, see there , POS (1) See point of sale and packet over SONET. (2) "Parent over shoulder." See digispeak. POS - point of sale and specialty managed care products. Specialty products include pharmacy benefit management A Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) is a third party administrator of prescription drug programs. They are primarily responsible for processing and paying prescription drug claims. , dental, utilization management, vision, mental health, life and disability insurance, flexible spending accounts flexible spending account, n an employee reimbursement account primarily funded with employee-designated salary reductions. Funds are reimbursed to the employee for health care (medical and/or dental), dependent care, and/or legal expenses and are , COBRA administration, and Medicare supplements. |
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