Dear Friends,
Our not-for-profit health plan is reporting another strong year of delivering value for our customers, innovating in our market and making powerful contributions to our community.
We are proud to look back on these achievements, which have made us one of the country’s top-rated health plans, with national awards for quality, service, and diversity and inclusion. But we are also looking ahead. We know our success in a fast-evolving health care landscape hinges on the continued urgency for greater affordability for our members, and a growing demand for high-quality care with an unparalleled consumer experience.
That’s why we are investing in advancements that matter.
We refreshed our award-winning MyBlue app and web portal with personalized navigation that helps consumers easily access their benefits, get real-time updates on claim and deductibles, and securely chat in real-time with our member services representatives.
For members who need a quick consult for illnesses, injuries or mental health concerns, our Well Connection telehealth partnership with American Well allows patients to instantly speak with physicians and other clinicians via video online.
We partnered with Landmark Health, which makes it possible for some of our most seriously ill neighbors to live safely at home with far fewer hospital visits, thanks to home visits and health monitoring by physicians
We are also dedicated to seeking to make health care more affordable for our 26,000 employer customers. We manage our complex business with maximum efficiency: Ninety cents of every dollar we took in last year went to pay for medical care or prescription medication, above the state benchmark.
Massachusetts has outperformed the rest of the country on constraining cost growth every year since 2010. Much of that success has been driven by our state’s adoption of payment reform, which we were the first to launch in 2009. Our program has since become a national model by rewarding participating physicians for improved quality, outcomes and costs – rather than simply fees for services.
Now, we have extended that groundbreaking model to hospitals for the first time. Under a new partnership, clinicians and leaders at South Shore Hospital will be rewarded for innovating and collaborating to improve their community’s health care system. They will be encouraged to help patients get the best possible care in the most convenient settings – whether that’s a hospital, an urgent care center, a physician’s office or even their own home.
This partnership is in keeping with our goal to remain the plan of choice for hospitals and the 57,000 clinicians in our network, while providing best-in-class service to our 2.8 million members.
Even as we strive to improve the consumer experience, we are more driven than ever to contribute to our community. We are among the top 10 corporate charitable donors in Massachusetts, giving $8.4 million to local not-for-profit organizations, and with 28,000 hours volunteered by our 3,800 employees.
Core to our values is a belief that clean air and clean water are essential building blocks for healthy living.
So we became the lead sponsor of the BLUEbikes bike-share program to encourage a sustainable - and fun! - commute for our neighbors in Boston, Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville. More than 1.7 million trips by BLUEbikes riders last year offset nearly 3 million pounds of carbon, and burned 158 million calories.
We gave Narcan toolkits and training to employers to combat the opioid epidemic in the workplace, and rolled out a publicly available online Resource Center. Those efforts represent our longstanding commitment to working tirelessly to end the crisis. In the years since implementation of our Prescription Pain Medication Safety Program in 2012, which led to landmark legislation, our state has seen opioid-based prescriptions and overdose deaths fall, bucking the national trend.
We have built a legacy over many years on our fierce commitment to universal access to health care, and our state has the lowest rate of uninsured residents in the country. Our foundation last year contributed $3.7 million to community grants to expand access to health care for low-income and vulnerable people in the commonwealth.
As a local, mission-driven, not-for-profit health plan, we regard our community as our shareholder. We are proud to say returns are strong.
Andrew Dreyfus
President & CEO