Blue Cross employees and family members can access Online Care Anywhere by logging onto a computer or using the phone at home or work. To facilitate workplace use of online care, Blue Cross has created three secured 'online care rooms' at its Eagan and Virginia, Minn. campuses, each equipped with a computer, webcam, biometric machines to record weight, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and other basic diagnostic tools. Fairview providers include specialists, from family practitioners to pediatricians and emergency medicine physicians, who will be scheduled and available for consult and care.
There are great potential benefits from online care. For example, users will have one more care option to manage their own health and the health of their families. By creating flexible care options, innovations such as Online Care Anywhere have the potential to address the growing shortage of primary care physicians and limited or no health access in many smaller communities.
"Innovation in all aspects of health care is needed, from the ways in which we access care to the structures in place to pay for it. Online Care Anywhere is one example of the kind of new thinking we need to change the health care equation to deliver more patient-centered, cost effective care," said Pat Geraghty.
About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, with headquarters in the St. Paul suburb of Eagan, was chartered in 1933 as Minnesota's first health plan and continues to carry out its charter mission today: to promote a wider, more economical and timely availability of health services for the people of Minnesota. A nonprofit, taxable organization, Blue Cross is the largest health plan based in Minnesota, covering 2.8 million members in Minnesota and nationally through its health plans or plans administered by its affiliated companies. Blue Cross and Blu
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