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News Briefs

February 2007

MODELS UNVEILED FOR NATIONWIDE HEALTH NETWORK

Prototypes for a standards-based nationwide health information network (NHIN) were scheduled for presentation at a conference last month in Washington, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Insurance companies are stakeholders in the NHIN, which will allow patients to manage their own health care records, move the records when they change jobs and share the records with insurers when they buy a policy.

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association have agreed to support a common set of standards for the network, according to published reports.

The January conference was the third on NHIN. The first NHIN forum, held in June, included presentations by care delivery organizations, network services and records repositories. The second, which took place in October included discussion of architecture security and confidentiality.

HISPANIC HEALTH SUBJECT OF BCC SITE

To promote health in the Latino community, Blue Cross of California (BCC) has started a Web site called NuestroBien, which is Spanish for "our well being."

The site, located at www.nuestrobien.com, presents articles in English and Spanish on prevention, nutrition and early detection of health problems.

The site's "Kids Center" provides games and animated clips on how the human body works. More than 600 health-related articles for parents, teens and kids are available in both languages.

"NuestroBien is an important outreach by our organization to the Latino community, which has been historically underserved," says Charlene Maher, BCC vice president and general manager, individual services.

Latinos account for more than half of the 6.3 million Californians who lack health insurance, even though they constitute only 31% of the state's population, says Maher. They are three times more likely than other Californians to lack health insurance, she adds.

Mary Scanlon, senior vice president of eBusiness consumer technology for WellPoint Inc., BCC's parent company, says Spanish-speaking consumers can use the information to make decisions.

"Our goal is to offer consumers new online tools that make it easy, convenient and familiar for them to get the information they need to make the best choices possible about their health and health care options," says Scanlon.

Nuestrobien.com is part of BCC's outreach to California's uninsured and underserved, the company says. "NuestroBien will prove an important key in our ongoing mission to provide affordable healthcare coverage to Californians," says Maher.

Products created to achieve that goal include Tonik, which is health insurance marketed to younger consumers who have been disinclined to buy policies. It is offered by BC Life & Health Insurance Co.

Another product, BeneFits, is aimed at small businesses that have been unable to offer coverage to employees.

TIME TO REVIEW ETHICS: LAW FIRM

The Lawson Firm, a Cleveland-based law firm that provides legal and compliance management services to the insurance industry, urges companies to review their codes of ethics in light of new annual and quarterly statement interrogatories adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo.

The interrogatories will require companies to state whether senior officers are subject to a code of ethics, which includes the following standards:

* Honest and ethical conduct, including the ethical handling of actual or apparent conflicts of interest between personal and professional relationships;

* Full, fair, accurate, timely and understandable disclosure in the reports required to be filed by the company;

* Compliance with all applicable laws and regulations;

* Internal reporting of code of ethics violations; and

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