America's Benefit Specialist November 2022

PRODUCT NEWS

an increase to the total cost of care for the system (National Library of Medicine). “Calm Health will play a defining role in the future of how we care for our health, providing the first-ever solution for payers and providers to treat mental and physical health simultaneously,” said David Ko, Calm CEO. “Through work with partners, we will give millions of people access to the care they need, resulting in decreased comorbid ities and overall cost of care.” Users will gain access to Calm Health through their health insurance plan, care provider or employer. Once they have access, they will be prompted to complete an in-app survey to identify the care plan that meets their specific needs. Calm Health is designed to comply with HIPAA and other privacy and security standards. “Our current healthcare system needs to evolve to meet the growing demands of our populations,” said Martha Temple, former CEO, Optum Behavioral Health. “Technol ogy like Calm Health will play a significant role in this evolution by increasing access to quality, evidence-based mental health resources and filling critical gaps between medical and behavioral healthcare.” Calm Health’s clinical programs will support users experiencing mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, as well as offer guided plans for users to prepare for therapy or utilize in-between therapy sessions. Additional programs will be added in the future to provide mental health support for physical conditions such as hypertension, obesity, heart disease, can cer and more that impact over 60 percent of the U.S. population (CDC). The mental health programs are de veloped by a team of clinical experts led by Calm’s Chief Clinical Officer Chris Mosunic in collaboration with the brand’s content team to provide engaging and outcome-based programs. The plans will consist of video and audio content led by doctors and experts. Calm Health follows Calm’s acquisition of Ripple Health Group in early 2022, marking the mental health brand’s movement into healthcare. To learn more, visit health. calm.com.

vets has been rising every year since 2014,” MGIS President Jeff Brunken noted. “As a result, many veterinarians have growing in come-protection needs—similar to those of other healthcare professionals. It’s a natural fit to provide MGIS group long-term disabil ity (LTD) insurance to veterinarians so they can take advantage of our coverage features.” MGIS group LTD mirrors key provisions of individual disability insurance while providing underwriting and cost advantages associated with group disability insurance. Some of these features include: • extended own-occupation definition of disability • favorable earnings definition and lagged earnings • “best of both worlds” partial disability benefits • no mandatory rehabilitation requirement • no lifetime-max mental & nervous and drug & alcohol (MNDA) limitation • guaranteed-issue underwriting • retro disability benefit • dedicated claims unit for veterinarians and other healthcare professionals Learn more at mgis.com. DOMINION NATIONAL ADDS DENTAQUAL QUALITY & PERFORMANCE RATING SYSTEM TO ONLINE DENTIST DIRECTORY Dominion National now integrates the DentaQual dentist quality and performance rating system into its network dentist directory listings, a move that will help meet growing consumer demand for objective quality ratings for dentists. DentaQual, developed by P&R Dental Strategies LLC, is the first-ever objective rating system for oral healthcare that showcases the quality of care Dominion network providers offer to their patients. “We are excited to provide our customers with transparency in provider information to help them make informed oral healthcare decisions,” said Dominion President Mike

Davis. “This is another innovative customer resource that supports our mission of being the easiest dental plan to work with on your path to wellness.” Rather than relying on subjective patient testimonials, DentaQual ratings are deter mined using data from DentaBase, P&R Dental Strategies’ database of anonymized and aggregated claims from more than 70 national and regional oral health benefit payers. Dentists are objectively scored using multiple metrics across five categories: • treatment outcomes • commitment to best practices

• cost-effectiveness • patient retention • treatment recommendations

DentaQual compares each dentist’s scores to the average scores of their peers in the same specialty and geography to generate an overall star rating for each dentist. For more informa tion, visit www.DominionNational.com.

CALM INTRODUCES CONDITION SPECIFIC MENTAL HEALTH CARE SOLUTION Calm introduces Calm Health, a mental health care solution for payers, providers and self-insured employers designed to bridge the gap between mental and physical healthcare. Calm Health will offer clinical condition-specific mental health programs along with tools to support provider and caregiver communication, medication track ing and more that can be easily integrated into existing health technology systems. Mental and physical health are deeply intertwined, yet the current healthcare sys tem is fragmented. In the U.S., two-thirds of primary care physicians are unable to refer patients to mental health services that are related to a physical health condition, even though many of these conditions can lead to anxiety and depression (Harvard Medical School). And when anxiety and depression are coupled with chronic conditions, we see

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