Section 3 — Member And Consumer Resources

We are committed to the education of both our employer members and their employees as a basic principle of our strategy and to ongoing effective communication.

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We embrace the opportunity to educate and inform our members about topics and issues related to health care delivery and benefits. We provide educational forums and seminars and support projects that promote best practices for employers to utilize in managing their health care dollars and benefit programs effectively. We routinely conduct educational forums and seminars tailored to the interests of our members. Area brokers/consultants are also invited. Recent seminars about such timely topics have included:

• Employer-Sponsored Clinics
• Comparative Effectiveness Research
• Behavioral Health Care
• Patient Activation
• Wellness
• Shared Decision Making
• Value-Based Benefit Design
• Health Care Reform
• Behavioral Economics
• Specialty Pharmacy
• Immunizations & Vaccinations
• Value-Based Insurance Design
• Cancer care
• Opioid Crisis

We inform our membership about upcoming educational events via email and also provide executive summaries of events on our web site. To read an executive summary of any of our seminars and forums since 2008, go to Past Event Summaries.

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[accordion-item title="Newsletters"]

The Catalyst

Distributed bimonthly, The Catalyst is BHCG’s e-newsletter that informs our members and strategic partners of the latest news and information regarding BHCG activities. To read the current issue and archived issues of The Catalyst, go to Newsletters.

Spotlight on Success

Spotlight on Success, published periodically, features stories about individuals and organizations who have leveraged the value of their partnership with BHCG to create success for their organization, BHCG and the community.  To read the current issue and archived issues of Spotlight on Success go to Newsletters.

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[accordion-item title="Dedicated BHCG service unit at UnitedHealthcare"]

At a time when employees are expected to become more engaged health care consumers and take ownership of their health and their health care, UnitedHealthcare’s BHCG-dedicated customer service unit is a valuable asset. It is reassuring to know the unit stands ready to assist your employees with intuitive customer service. The consumer tools found on myuhc.com also support more informed decision-making and employees and dependents should be encouraged to use them.

Located in Wisconsin, UnitedHealthcare’s BHCG-dedicated service unit can be reached toll-free at: 800-752-1816.

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[accordion-item title="Wellness Consumer Engagement"]

UnitedHealthcare offers fully insured members an easy digital resource for managing health, the Rally consumer engagement platform. Rally is an interactive health and wellness enhancement to the myuhc.com consumer portal that harnesses the power of data, social connections and rewards. Consumers receive personal lifestyle plans that focus on goals, competition, progress tracking and healthy living. The Rally interactive experience offers:

• Challenges and communities
• Missions and rewards
• Lifestyle plans
• An intuitive health survey

The Rally tools learn about individuals as they share details about themselves and their health status. An intuitive health survey gathers health and lifestyle information to be used to personalize health trackers, suggestions, clinical or wellness programs and a tool that calculates an individual's estimated "health age."

Using the health survey, the program creates suggested action steps or "Missions" to provide choices to improve or maintain health and are linked to promotions on the site, reminders and tracking accomplishments. Users can track things like weight loss and physical activities. Connections with wearable fitness devices and mobile access are also available. "Coins" toward rewards are earned every time a health or tracking activity takes place.

The Rally experience engages consumers by inviting them to join an online "Challenge," share their accomplishments or join a competition to increase the fun factor. Consumer decide how they want to connect with other individuals with common interests.

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[accordion-item title="Transparency tools"]

Did you know? Members of BHCG health plans have access to easy-to-use online tools through myuhc.com that compare both the cost and effectiveness of care from different providers. Using clear and simple information, consumers can shop for value by choosing providers, procedures and prescriptions.

What’s more, consumers can get cost estimates for procedures from start to finish, including facility charges and doctor, lab work, and x-ray fees – all based on BHCG-contracted rates with UnitedHealthcare providers. Members can also find help in learning how to use the tools by contacting the BHCG-dedicated customer service unit. Finally, consumers are encouraged to comparison shop for health care through access to useful consumer information regarding:

• Doctors – costs for common types of visits and compliance with evidence-based medicine
• Hospitals – cost and effectiveness of care information
• Ambulatory services – costs for a variety of diagnostic services and outpatient surgery procedures
• Prescriptions – Rx calculator to find medication costs, explore alternatives and compare costs

UnitedHealthcare tools are available at:myuhc.com.

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[accordion-item title="Consumer education"]

From our inception, we have embraced the strategy that an essential component in reducing health care costs is through employees taking an active role in their own health. Employees engaged in their health and health care make more informed decisions, leading to better health outcomes and reduced costs. Several tools have been developed for your employees to help make them better purchasers of health care.

Additionally, we have developed consumer videos focused on key consumer accountabilities that are available to you to share with your employees. Called “A Buyers Guide to Health Care,” these online modules help employees learn how to more effectively navigate the health care system. There are eight modules featuring “Joe”, an average health care consumer who focuses on various causes behind rising health care costs. Some module topics include: getting the most from your health care visit, how insurance works, prescription drugs, prevention and lifestyle, and understanding BHCG's strategy. To access the consumer education modules, go to Consumer Education Modules. After clicking on Login,you will be asked to enter your organization’s password. For more information regarding our consumer education modules or if you do not have your organization's password, please contact Joleen Hohl at 262-875-3312 ext. 2 or jhohl@BHCGWI.org. Also, corresponding communication materials that promote the modules can be accessed on our site (see below, Communication Tools).

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[accordion-item title="Communication Tools"]

Communication Resources

As the need to engage, inform and educate employees grows ever greater, we have developed a turnkey communication solution for our members. The Communications Resources section of our website, exclusively for BHCG employers, offers an easy and affordable way to access, customize and order or print employee benefits communication materials.

The Communications Resources section of our web site, contains:

• Houses templates of professionally prepared employee communication materials such as newsletter articles, benefits of BHCG participation, enrollment material, posters, payroll stuffers, worksite materials and mailers on topics such as health care consumerism, open enrollment and wellness.
• Includes numerous UnitedHealthcare employee communication documents.
• Contains an “Idea Library” of actual communication pieces other BHCG employers have used to communicate to their employees about such topics as health care consumerism, smoking cessation, how to locate a physician on myuhc.com, and many others. Also available to view are numerous documents employers have used for open enrollment.
• Some documents allow you to customize and personalize the items through the use of variable fields, uploading your logo and adding/deleting copy.

Every employer has access to the site, with your own user name and password. You have access to documents unique to the services you receive from UnitedHealthcare.  If you need your user name and password, please contact Joleen Hohl at 262-875-3312 ext. 2 or jhohl@BHCGWI.org.

We are always looking for more documents to add – the more documents, the more value for our members. If you have documents you would like to contribute, please contact Jennifer LaMere at 262-875-3312 ext. 3 or at jlamere@BHCGWI.org.

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[accordion-item title="BHCG staff"]

The staff brings more than 70 years of combined experience in various aspects of the health care industry to their roles with the BHCG. They are:

Jeffrey Kluever, Executive Director

Jeff joined BHCG as executive director in August 2016. Jeff is responsible for strategic direction, overseeing our operations and implementing the decisions and policies of our Leadership Committees and our Support Subcommittees. Jeff can be reached at: 262-875-3312 ext. 1 or at jkluever@BHCGWI.org

Joleen Hohl, Executive Assistant

Joleen has been with us since 2009. In addition to serving as assistant to the executive director, Joleen maintains numerous databases and corporate records. Joleen can be reached at: 262-875-3312 ext. 2 or at jhohl@BHCGWI.org.

Jennifer LaMere, Project Manager

Jennifer has been with us since 2006. Jennifer has responsibility for implementing and managing projects. Jennifer can be reached at: 262-875-3312 ext. 3 or at jlamere@BHCGWI.org.

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