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May 2, 2000
Contact: Elizabeth Hammond, 800-288-2227, ext. 44626
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina Wins Two National Awards for Interactive Web Site
Columbia, S.C. – Two national organizations honored Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina with awards this week for its new Web site that gives consumers the ability to conduct secure personal transactions online in real time.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the Chicago-based umbrella organization for all of the Blues health plans in North America, today presented Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina with its award for Electronic Media and Interactive Programs in its annual "Best of Blue" awards competition open to all of the Blues plans. Company representatives accepted the award at a national meeting of the association in Dallas.
Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN) magazine presented Blue Cross its Most Wired Innovator 2000 Award at the Health Forum Summit conference yesterday in Orlando, Fla. The award recognizes excellence in applications of online information technology in healthcare. H&HN is a publication of Health Forum, an American Hospital Association (AHA) subsidiary. A panel of judges representing hospitals, health systems, health plans and Internet leaders judged the competition.
The company's Web site, SouthCarolinaBlues.com, was launched in December with a securely-encrypted section called "My Insurance Manager" that allows policyholders to view their personal claims status, their deductible and out-of-pocket amounts, hospital inpatient and outpatient authorization status, eligibility, and other health insurance such as coverage through a spouse. Depending on their coverage, they also can request a new ID card, choose or change a primary care physician and access benefits booklets. Members with individual policies can look up bill status.
Physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers can go online to check a patient's claim status, eligibility, inpatient and outpatient authorization, deductible and out-of-pocket amounts. The information on "My Insurance Manager" is available to policyholders and providers associated with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina, Companion HealthCare and HMO Blue
The Web site is unique in the health insurance industry because it is interfaced with the company's mainframe claims processing system, which makes the information that consumers see real time, or the most up to date, information. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association featured SouthCarolinaBlues.com in its quarterly Business Reporters Roundtable last week in Washington, D.C.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina, headquartered in Columbia, S.C., is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. It covers more than 1.2 million people in South Carolina and is the largest health insurer in the state.
(Reporters can access a demo of "My Insurance Manager" for policyholders on the Guest page and a demo for providers on the Providers page of SouthCarolinaBlues.com.)
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