Word: healthflex
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Dates: during 1992-1992
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...HealthFlex Blue...
...recent years which could have been described and experienced as a positive new program was not so received. A year has passed since the University removed Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a traditional indemnity or "freedom of choice" plan, from the faculty and staff health care menu and replaced it with HealthFlex Blue, a Blue Cross-affiliated "point-of-service" plan, and the change is still widely misunderstood. (A point-of-service plan is a hybrid between an indemnity plan and an HMO--see "Definitions" below...
...deductible, and therefore a greater cost to patients, than the old Blue Cross plan. In the end, because HUCTW leaders have insisted on complete consultation about any large or small changes in health care offerings, we had a detailed understanding of the new plan and accepted it. As instituted, HealthFlex Blue charged an out-of-network deductible identical to the regular, annual deductible under the old Blue Cross/ Blue Shield. In other words, theoretically, no costs to patients were increased and better-managed care was made available to patients, at a lower premium. (See "managed care" in "Definitions" below...
...reach a reasoned conclusion over time that a "point-of-service" plan was an appropriate idea here and ought to be pursued. Although such plans have been around for several years, Harvard administrators found themselves forced to react quickly to an attractive offer from the newly-formed HealthFlex Blue, and had to communicate the new option hastily. A careful, broadly-consultative decision about a point-of-service plan could have been reached. It was not, because no one in Harvard's administration was thinking about...
...overall picture of Harvard's response to the health care challenges on its own campus is one of sporadic, incoherent activity. A significant lack of consultation and full communication on the HealthFlex Blue change is followed by a stunning excess of process in considering "domestic partners" coverage. Lasting, effective structures have not been created for committing the University's resources to finding good answers to difficult questions, even though they are called for in the HUCTW Agreement and by many concerned individuals in the Harvard community...