Blue Shield of California today announced a range of 2022 coverage options for Medicare beneficiaries in California, with expanded benefits for food and transportation services.

Blue Shield is introducing a new Medicare HMO plan, Blue Shield Balance, available to all Medicare beneficiaries in Los Angeles County. This new plan includes unique features such as multi-language concierge customer service and support.  

“We continue to find new ways to bring unique benefits and services that support our diverse membership,” said Lina Saadzoi, vice president and general manager of Medicare at Blue Shield of California. “Our goal is to provide comprehensive health coverage that all Medicare beneficiaries deserve and have come to rely on. We remain committed to creating a health care system worthy of our family and friends that’s sustainably affordable.”

Starting January 1, 2022, Blue Shield Medicare Advantage plan benefits in various locations will include:

Reduced cost share for key medical benefits in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties

• Depending on the plan, cost-share reduction may include primary care physician and specialist office visits, outpatient surgery, and urgent care.

New grocery benefit and expanded home meal delivery benefit in select plans

• A Special Supplemental Benefit for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) called Healthy Grocery for eligible members (not all members will qualify)* that provides a $25 monthly allowance to purchase healthy and nutritious foods and produce.
• Addition of home meal delivery service upon discharge from an inpatient hospital or skilled nursing facility stay. The benefit includes up to 22 meals and 10 snacks per discharge (limited to two discharges per year); offered in select plans in Los Angeles, Fresno, Merced, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Clara and Stanislaus Counties.

Expanded transportation benefit in Central and Northern California plans

• Addition of transportation services to plan-approved health-related locations in Alameda and San Mateo counties.
• Expansion of transportation services to plan-approved health-related locations to an unlimited number of trips annually in select plans in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Fresno, Merced, San Joaquin, Santa Clara and Stanislaus Counties.

Added dental benefits in Central and Northern California plans

• Addition of preventive and diagnostic dental services such as cleaning, routine dental exams, and dental x-rays in Alameda, Merced, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Stanislaus Counties.

Medicare’s Annual Election Period is October 15, 2021, to December 7, 2021. For more information about Blue Shield’s Medicare offerings, please visit www.bsca.com/medicare 

About Blue Shield of California

Blue Shield of California strives to create a healthcare system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. Blue Shield of California is a tax paying, nonprofit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with over 4.5 million members, over 7,500 employees and more than $21 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid, and Medicare healthcare service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $150 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last four years to have an impact on California communities. 

For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit news.blueshieldca.com.  

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Health insurance giant Blue Shield of California will be the outside administrator tasked with ramping up coronavirus vaccinations, which to date has been slow, stilted and plagued by confusion, the state health agency said in a statement Wednesday.

Another major health care provider, Kaiser Permanente, will also help in the effort to deliver vaccines speedily and equitably across the state of nearly 40 million residents, the agency said. Both are nonprofit companies based in Oakland.

The contract with Blue Shield is still being finalized but its task is to “create, contract with and manage a statewide vaccine administration network” and to allocate doses directly to providers, which will include pharmacies, public and private health networks and hospitals, pop-up sites and community health centers with an eye toward equity, according to the statement.

Blue Shield has an extensive network of providers, contracting with tens of thousands of physicians and hundreds of hospitals throughout the state. Kaiser has its own health insurance plans as well as medical offices.

Darrel Ng, spokesman for the California Department of Public Health, declined to give more details or comment on Blue Shield, but said part of an insurer’s general responsibility is to reward providers that do a better job.

“For instance, providers often get paid more money if they hit certain health metrics such as mammograms or flu vaccinations,” he said.

On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom abruptly announced changes to the way the state is administering scarce vaccines, saying it would play a more centralized role in notifying residents, scheduling appointments and determining eligibility. While there’s a national vaccine shortage, California also needs to administer more of the doses it does have, said state officials.

Currently, the state allocates doses to county public health departments and hospital networks, which have their own appointment systems and eligibility requirements. As a result, some counties and providers are vaccinating anyone 65 and older while others are sticking to patients 75 and up, leaving residents confused and frustrated.

State officials also say they don’t have uniform information on where doses remain unused or who has been vaccinated and they hope that Blue Shield as well as a new state notification and appointment system will alleviate that data disconnect.

California is administering about 125,000 vaccinations every weekday.

Blue Shield of California said in a statement it was “honored to be invited by the governor to play an important role” in battling the pandemic and declined further questions. On its website,it says its role “will be to maximize the speed at which vaccinations are made available across California with a focus on disparately affected communities.”

Kaiser did not respond to emailed inquiries for comment.

Anthony Wright, executive director of consumer advocacy group Health Access, said he hopes the centralization will free up counties and providers to do the critical work of reaching out to underserved and vulnerable communities.

Regardless of the vendor, he said the state has incentives “if nothing else, because of the spotlight that’s on it, to demand accountability and results on both the efficiency and the equity aspects of this distribution.”

State officials said they expect the transition to the new system in mid-February, hoping that by then the federal government will be sending much more vaccine.

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