DES MOINES, Iowa, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the leading health benefits administrator serving Iowa and South Dakota, today announced the availability of BluesEnroll, a new, secure, online benefits administration tool. With BluesEnroll, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield offers its Iowa and South Dakota large groups and their employees a timesaving and convenient solution that is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
BluesEnroll provides a rich set of benefit administration tools and capabilities for benefit coordinators, administrators and payroll staff who are now able to exchange enrollment and eligibility information at the click of a button. Large group employees and their family members, insured by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, can access BluesEnroll to gather information about their benefits, make life event changes, such as adding dependents, and obtain confirmation of their benefit information.
"We constantly strive to be the easiest health plan to do business with by offering our members the most innovative health insurance products, services and solutions," said Ellen Gaucher, group vice president, Operations, Quality and Customer Satisfaction. "BluesEnroll saves time, reduces paperwork, and eliminates hassles for our large groups and their employees."
"For the past several years, we have made a substantial investment in providing market leading technologies to our members, employer groups, brokers and providers," Gaucher added. "The launch of BluesEnroll is yet another example of our commitment to our marketplace."
Benefit administrators save time with BluesEnroll's report feature, which generates more than 60 customizable reports with a click or two of the mouse. With BluesEnroll, benefit administrators can make benefit changes for employees and dependents, add new hires, manage COBRA coverage, and change employee classifications. BluesEnroll processes these and all transactions securely, efficiently and accurately. It supports health and dental insurance provided by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, as well as third-party insurance, such as life insurance, disability, flexible spending and all other employee benefit offerings.
With BluesEnroll, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield large group members can make updates to their information online securely and at their convenience. By using BluesEnroll, employees can gain access to their benefit information and can make changes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This constant availability of benefit information also helps reduce the Human Resource cost structure of most employers.
"The selection by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and now full scale roll out, is a real win for Benefitfocus.com," said Shawn Jenkins, president and CEO of Benefitfocus.com, Inc. "We're extremely proud to have Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and its employer groups as clients. This demonstrates that our substantial commitment to technology and services in the Midwest region is paying off."
"We have gained a real market leadership position through our focus and dedication to easy-to-use and flexible technologies provided to employer groups," Jenkins added. "We look forward to bringing even more efficiency and new technologies to Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and its members."
Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield's announcement follows on the heels of a substantial integration effort and pilot testing of the BluesEnroll platform in both the Iowa and South Dakota markets. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield will be offering the BluesEnroll platform to new and prospective group members for coverage effective January 1, 2005.
About Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Wellmark, Inc. ( http://www.wellmark.com/ ) conducts business as Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa. Wellmark and its subsidiaries insure or administer health benefits for over 1.8 million individuals. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus.com, Inc. (Benefitfocus) is the leading provider of employee benefits software and services offering employees and employers secure, online access to benefits and human resource information. Its suite of products and services includes large and small group electronic enrollment, electronic quoting, electronic billing, and data exchange services. Benefitfocus replaces time-consuming, expensive and error-prone paper processes allowing companies to administer all their benefit offerings through one interface. This one-to-many platform substantially speeds up benefit enrollment and administration while reducing overall costs and greatly improving communication to the employee.
Benefitfocus.com, Inc.CONTACT: Nate DaPore of Benefitfocus.com, +1-843-849-7476