Oct 21, 2019
Blue Shield of California is adding several new plans to their 2020 medical portfolio to provide more options for your new and renewing small business accounts. They added a Platinum PPO with no deductible, $0 primary care physician visits, and $0 tier 1 pharmacy drugs, making it the richest of their plan options. Their HMO portfolio now includes a Gold 1000/35 plan filling the gap among the existing gold plans with $500 and $1,500 deductibles.
They also added to their HSA-eligible plan options with a Silver PPO Savings 2500/35%.
Finally, their Tandem PPO portfolio is significantly expanded so that each of their PPO plan designs is available on the Full PPO and Tandem PPO networks. The 2020 Tandem PPO plans, as well as Trio HMO plans, all feature a $0 Teladoc copay and a $0 first home visit with Heal.
The new plans are available to new and renewing groups beginning with January 1, 2020 effective dates. Regulatory approval came after their January renewals were queued, with some impacts:
- Group renewal kits do not include information on the availability of the new plan options
- The Small Group Online Renewal (SGOR) tool does not include the new plans
They will send a separate communication to renewing groups in early November with the updated plan options.
Please reach out to your dedicated LISI Regional Sales Representative to discuss where Blue Shield sits in your market.
