America's Benefit Specialist December 2022

MEDICARE MATTERS

Capital Blue Cross Enhanced PPO, Capital Blue Cross Value PPO and Capital Blue Cross | WellSpan Value PPO. Capital has a variety of plans to fit different needs and budgets, including $0 premium HMOs and PPOs, and offers robust benefits including dental, vision, hearing, transportation and a flexible over-the-counter allowance. Other highlights of Capital Blue Cross’ Medicare Advantage offerings for 2023 include: • More plan options with $0 copays for tier-1 drugs at preferred pharmacies. • An over-the-counter (OTC) prescrip tion medication allowance that is quarterly instead of monthly, providing more flexibility to buy non-prescrip tion health and wellness products when you need them. • Most plans have “per stay” inpatient hospital copays rather than “per day” copays, which can save money on extended hospital stays. • Some plans now include six visits for routine/preventive chiropractic and six routine podiatry visits. • Certain plans offer lowered copays for specialist visits and X-rays. Capital Blue Cross serves a 21-county region in Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley. Learn more at www. CapitalBlueMedicare.com.

This expansion allows BCBSTX to offer Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug (MAPD) plans to nearly 4 million eligible residents in 148 counties—now covering 58% of Texas’ 254 counties. The new counties are Anderson, Aran sas, Bowie, Calhoun, Camp, Cass, Cher okee, Delta, DeWitt, Franklin, Grayson, Gregg, Harrison, Hudspeth, Hunt, Jack son, Kaufman, Kleberg, Lamar, Maverick, Morris, Nacogdoches, Panola, Potter, Randall, Red River, Rusk, Shelby, Smith, Starr, Titus, Tom Green, Upshur, Uvalde, Victoria, Wood, Young and Zapata. The expansion is not just geographic. For 2023, BCBSTX is offering new prod ucts and services to best serve the specific needs and lifestyles of the growing Medi care population in Texas. Many BCBSTX Medicare Advantage plans provide additional benefits beyond traditional Medicare, including dental, vision and prescription drug coverage at a variety of price points, including options with $0 monthly premiums. New options for 2023 include an Open Access PPO plan, as well as a Medicare Advantage-only PPO plan with a Part B premium reduction benefit designed with U.S. military veterans in mind. For cost-conscious consumers, BCBSTX will offer two HMO plans with a Part B premium reduction benefit, as well as a PPO plan with Part B premium reduc tion benefit. In addition, there will now

be an HMO plan with a $5,000 dental allowance, a PPO plan with $5,000 dental allowance and a PPO plan with $1,000 pre-loaded Flexible Spend card to use toward covered dental, vision and hearing benefits. A Dual-Eligible Special Needs HMO plan will include a Flexible Spend card. The Flexible Spend card will add addition al allowance, in the form of a prefunded Mastercard, that members can use to help supplement out-of-pocket costs on their nonmedical-covered dental, vision and hearing benefits. To support the MAPD county expan sion, BCBSTX is adding more than 31,000 providers to its network to help members access specialized care when and where they want and need it. More information is available at www.bcbstx.com/medicare. CAPITAL BLUE CROSS OFFERS NEW MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLANS, ENHANCED BENEFITS FOR 2023 Capital Blue Cross’ Medicare Advan tage offerings for 2023 will continue to provide the strong access, affordability, flexibility and benefits Medicare benefi ciaries have come to expect from Capital, with some improvements. Capital’s existing BlueJourney Select PPO plan is getting a new name—Capital Blue Cross Select PPO—with enhanced benefits, and three new Medicare Ad vantage PPO plans are being introduced:

30 ABS | benefitspecialistmagazine.com