11/17/2009
Letter from Jonathan Hensley
The Legislature's passage of the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" (HR 3962) is an important starting point for health care reform. Regence is a long-time advocate for reform, but we fear that the provisions of the Act undermine the affordability of insurance and fall short of addressing the underlying drivers of our broken system: overuse of medical care and rising health care costs.
As work begins on merging the Senate bills, we continue to be actively engaged with our local and national legislators. We urge everyone to get involved! Your in-depth and first-hand knowledge of the health care system can provide lawmakers with crucial insight to the most important reform effort of our time. Together, we must urge Congress to build on what works in the present system and fix the parts that are broken and unsustainable. For information on health care reform and resources for contacting our lawmakers, visit the Issues & Action Center on our Web site. For those of you who are already involved, we appreciate your work.
As trusted advisors in health care, I'm sure you are frequently asked your opinion on the current debate. We have worked to turn our public Web sites into vehicles for sharing information, staying informed and educating others. We hope you have found value in what we have shared. New to our site is an Online Quiz that helps separate the myths from the facts about the health care system. Your clients may find this interactive, informative tool useful as they look for ways to participate in the reform debate and help their employees stay informed. Finally, WhatsTheRealCost.org offers an interactive educational experience that many of your clients will find appealing.
As Congress continues to debate, we continue to work within our own community of members by advocating through the design of our newest health plans, Innova®, Engage®, ActivateSM and Regence HSA Healthplan 2.0SM. Our newer plans offer choice and foster increased consumer engagement in health care. These plans are important to us because we believe that a community of engaged, informed, motivated health care consumers has tremendous power to improve what's wrong with today's health care system.
We don't just advocate change for others—we practice what we preach. You may have noticed the URAC seal on our Web site. We were accredited for Comprehensive Wellness earlier this year. We are one of only two health plans in the nation to receive this accreditation. The award demonstrates our overall commitment to wellness and underscores our success in helping employers improve employee health and reduce health care costs.
Finally, on behalf of the Regence family, I wish you and your family a happy, safe and healthy Thanksgiving holiday.
M. Jonathan Hensley, President
Regence BlueShield
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