Spending Accounts

What is Consumer-Directed Health Care?

The philosophy of CDHC (consumer-directed health care) is to empower and encourage employees through cost sharing, individual purchasing choices and educational tools, allowing them to make better health care decisions.

With a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas CDHC option, member responsibility for his or her health care is coupled with the employee health benefit plan. The intended outcome is to help contain rising health care costs, along with financial savings for both the consumer and the employer. 

There are three parts to CDHC:

1. a comprehensive health benefits program
2. a funding mechanism
3. program support along with health and wellness tools.

1) These program options can be used by the employer to help curtail rising health insurance costs.

• Increase employee out-of-pocket (deductible, shared payment or copay) amounts
• Increase employee premium contribution
• Triple Option programs
• Benefit enhancements
• Benefit limitations (not paying for specific services)
• Website access that offers health information as well as secure online claims status information and online provider directory

2) These funding arrangements are available from Further (formerly SelectAccount) (our consumer-directed health care program administrator). Under these arrangements, the employee’s personal account information is available online at a secure Web site.

• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) - (Available to employers with five or more employees)
• Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)
• Health Savings Account (HSA)

3) Available Resources

These are some of the tools available to BCBSKS employers and members as a standard service of their benefit program. These tools allow members to educate themselves in an effort to become better health care consumers.

• Online Provider directory (find a contracting doctor/hospital)
• Member newsletters
• Explanation of Benefits (EOB) documents - available in our secure section
• Health care management coaches
• General wellness information
• Personal online claims status and coverage information
• Links to other related sites

In addition, dedicated group benefit consultants will work with an employer to develop a health insurance plan, through a variety of out-of-pocket and benefit options, to best meet the employer’s needs.