Learn about the proactive decisions you can make to reduce healthcare costs.
As your health insurance provider, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) is committed to keeping you informed about healthcare decisions that affect you and your family. Our healthcare costs advertisement campaign helps identify ways you can be proactive in your health to help reduce healthcare costs.
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Rising Healthcare Costs: What can you do?
There are a number of ways you can choose to be proactive to help lower the costs of your healthcare.
- Choose to live a healthy life: Take advantage of programs and information we have for you to maintain overall health and wellness. Make smart food choices, exercise at least a little bit every day, and don’t smoke. Buckle up every time you get in a car. Obtain regular check-ups and immunizations and follow your doctor's orders.
- Participate in your healthcare: Build a good relationship with your doctor. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about your health or healthcare. You have a right to fully understand your health conditions.
- Practice prevention: We publish preventive guidelines and recommended health screenings. Take advantage of these opportunities to stay healthy.
- Choose generic drugs when appropriate: Ask your doctor or pharmacist if a generic drug is right for you.
- Avoid unnecessary care: Discuss the costs, benefits and risks of all medical tests and treatments. Avoid unnecessary hospitalizations when possible.
- Don’t needlessly repeat tests: If you are referred to a specialist, make sure to take or have sent all your current X-rays, lab work and test results so these tests don’t need to be repeated.
- Think before going to the emergency room: A trip to the emergency room is expensive and should only be used in a true emergency. Visit an Urgent Care facility or your physician’s office for non-urgent care, such as a cold or flu.
- Review all bills: It is important for you to review all medical bills. Make sure they don’t include duplications, inaccurate dates or charges. Let the provider know if you find mistakes.
Rising Healthcare Costs: The Reasons
Become aware of the reasons healthcare costs are rising at an alarming rate nationwide.
- Prescription drugs: Modern technology enables drug companies to create life-saving drugs, but the costs associated with these new drugs can be very high. For example, pharmaceutical companies spent more than $2.5 billion dollars last year on direct-to-consumer ads touting their new drugs. This is in addition to the billions of dollars spent on research and development.
Generic drugs are available for many prescriptions and can cost much less. In fact, for every 1% of increased generic usage by our membership, we can save $1 million in costs. (Example: currently we have a 45% generic usage; we will save $1 million if we can get 46% of our members’ prescriptions filled with a generic.)
Blue KC members consume an average of nine prescriptions per person per year, with an average cost of $50 per prescription.
- Facility expansion: Hospitals in the area are expanding, responding to the need for more beds and new services available every day. We all pay for the convenience.
- Lifestyle choices: You make a choice about your health every day. Making poor food choices and little or no exercise can lead to many debilitating physical conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Smoking and abuse of alcohol also increase the risk of developing serious health ailments. This translates into increased costs for everyone, not just those leading unhealthy lives.
- Insulation of consumer from actual healthcare costs: Consumers who have health insurance are insulated from the actual cost of their medical care. For example, most people have no idea of the cost to visit their doctor or an emergency room because they pay a set co-pay.
- Government mandates: When federal and state legislation requires that specific benefits or services, known as mandated benefits, be added to all health insurance plans, premiums go up for everyone. HIPPA, a federal mandate to protect patients, costs millions of dollars to implement.
Rising Healthcare Costs: What is Blue KC doing?
Blue KC is the largest not-for-profit and locally owned, locally governed health insurance carrier in the area. We take our responsibilities to the Kansas City area community seriously and are working hard to keep the rising costs of healthcare under control by using collaboration and creativity.
- Rate stability: 2008 was the fourth consecutive year of offering our customers lower than average rate adjustments for our industry. We understand the importance of long-term stability in your health insurance premiums.
- Collaborating with physicians: We cannot solve the problem of rising costs alone. It takes a collaborative effort between hospitals, doctors, health insurance plans and members to really make a difference. We have strengthened our collaboration with physicians as we encouraged the Missouri Legislature to address the state's malpractice premium crisis. We also continue our innovative work with our various Physician Advisory Groups, bringing together physician groups and our company to help educate each of us on the challenges we face.
- Working to further lower administrative costs: Currently, just more than 13 cents of every premium dollar paid goes to the costs of processing and paying claims, providing customer services and other business activities. For the last several years, we have significantly lowered our administrative costs, and are working to continue these efficiencies.
- Creating a variety of health plan options:
- Blue KC was one of the first to introduce a Consumer Driven Health Plan to the Kansas City market in 2002. This plan offers increased flexibility of benefits to our members.
- In 2003, we extended this product by adding an HRA plan (PersonalBlue), which features a member reimbursement component that encourages members to stay healthy and use their healthcare dollars more wisely.
- In early 2005, we introduced an HSA product, BlueSaver to the market. This product offers increased flexibility, in conjunction with a high deductible health plan, to help employers and employees better manage their healthcare costs.
- In 2008 Blue KC introduced AffordaBlue, a brand new product for individuals and small group. AffordaBlue offers a low premium / high deductible, generic prescriptions coverage plan with copays for the first five office visits.
- We will continue to work to provide coverage plan options for our members and group employers that meet their needs while helping to keep costs under control.
- Offering Web services: We continue to use technology to become more efficient and cost effective. Members can now enroll in our products online, check their claim status, pay premiums online, use online health coaching and locate a doctor, hospital, dentist or pharmacist on our website.
- Working with other Blue Plans: The more than 40 independent Blue Plans that form the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association work together on a variety of programs and services, like BlueCard, the only national PPO, offering a network of healthcare providers across the country, to lower costs for all members.
- Promoting health programs and initiatives and conducting educational campaigns: Your health is important to us. We help you take charge of your own health by giving you access to online tools and resources through programs like A Healthier You™.