OUR CUSTOMERS:
Our COVID-19 Response

Since March 2020, COVID-19 has affected nearly every aspect of life for many North Carolinians. Throughout this time, Blue Cross NC has prioritized responsiveness and pivoted to meet our customers’ and communities’ changing needs. Read about our COVID-19 response in 2020 on pages 10 and 11 of the linked report.

We continue to focus on providing members with support to get them through the pandemic by facilitating greater access to affordable solutions and quality care.

Covering COVID-19 Testing and Treatment¹

• Until vaccines became widely available, we enabled members with COVID-19 to receive treatment without having to pay their usual cost shares. We will continue to waive member costs for COVID-19-related screening visits until the public health emergency is over.
• We cover or reimburse members’ costs of any lab or at-home COVID-19 tests that are consistent with CDC guidance and approved or given emergency use authorization by the FDA. To make tests accessible to more people, we worked swiftly to ensure that we could cover over-the-counter tests as of January 15, 2022.

Helping Members Through Telehealth

COVID-19 is driving long-term changes in how we view and use telehealth. More people have discovered how effective virtual primary care and behavioral health services can be. We let this guide some of our efforts to develop new ways to help our members access, afford and make good use of their health care even when they can’t go to the doctor in person. Through the pandemic, we have covered health care visits by video or phone at the same rate as face-to-face visits. In 2021, 10% of our total commercial claims and 1% of total Medicare Advantage claims have been for telehealth services² – which means that many members have accessed health care remotely during times when they could not comfortably go to health care offices in person.

Our Vaccine Access Efforts

When COVID-19 vaccines were approved, Blue Cross NC sprang into action to ensure that they would get to as many North Carolinians as possible. We have always covered COVID-19 vaccines at no cost to members. As of March 2022, we are proud that 62% of total North Carolinians are fully vaccinated.³ Of course, we cannot stop there.

• Health care providers can vaccinate more people if they have the funds to hire more staff, extend office hours or take other actions. On March 15, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) increased the Medicare payment rates for providers and its network to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. To help providers get resources for vaccine distribution, Blue Cross NC followed CMS guidance for payment rates to administer COVID-19 vaccines for commercial members. The rate increase began on April 15, 2021, and will stay in place through the public health emergency.⁴
• We collaborate with other organizations to educate North Carolinians about vaccine safety and get vaccines to people who would otherwise have difficulty accessing them. For example, we invested in RIDE UNITED NC, a partnership between United Way and Lyft, to give communities of color, seniors and uninsured individuals no-cost rides to and from vaccine appointments. Our company’s and the Blue Cross NC Foundation’s contributions funded 10,000 rides.⁵
• We gave vouchers to our Federal Employee Program^® members to encourage them to get vaccinated.
• We amplified NC Department of Health and Human Services' (NCDHHS) efforts to educate our communities about the vaccine with videos (including our Behavioral Health Medical Director's personal COVID-19 vaccine story), our COVID-19 microsite, social media campaigns focusing on vulnerable populations, tools for employers to organize on-site vaccine clinics, work to promote booster shots, direct outreach to all Blue Cross NC members when they became eligible for the vaccine, special outreach to high-risk members and more.

Our continued efforts to get North Carolinians vaccinated include addressing vaccine hesitancy, dispelling myths and offering targeted outreach and education for the most vulnerable populations.

Helping Ensure Hospital Space During COVID-19 Spikes

We have monitored the pandemic and our community’s needs throughout, doing our part to ensure that people get the treatment they need. During COVID-19 spikes, when it has been imperative to free up hospital bed space, we have waived prior authorizations for one- to three-month periods. This temporary measure enabled a faster and easier process for moving patients with less severe illness from hospitals into skilled nursing facilities and outpatient centers, ensuring that they received continued care while the most acute COVID-19 patients could stay in hospitals as needed.

Supporting Our Providers

We recognized that health care providers would need our support to adapt to changes through the pandemic. Among our continued efforts to collaborate with providers, the pandemic nudged us to conduct “Virtual Rounds” webinars, where we provide relevant information and answer providers’ most pressing questions to equip them with the resources to best manage their COVID-19 response. Each webinar discusses our company’s measures, deadlines relevant to providers, updates about coding and documentation, educational resources and answers to their questions. We are proud to support our providers and enable them to offer excellent care through the public health emergency and beyond.

Early in the pandemic, we also provided a corporate sponsorship to help manufacture masks and other supplies for health care workers when there was a shortage of personal protective equipment. As we monitor the public health emergency, we continue to look for ways to support our health care providers in their vital work.