Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont today announced a new collaboration with Choice Care Card of Waterbury, Vermont to offer employer-funded medical reimbursement arrangements used to cover out-of-pocket health care-related expenses.The collaboration with Choice Care Card will allow Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont’s group customers to integrate their Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) with their health plan, according to company officials.HRAs work with any type of health benefit plan but are typically paired with a high-deductible or higher co-pay health plan ‘ plans much less expensive than comprehensive full coverage plans – to yield the greatest cost savings to the employer. The employer then uses the premium savings from the higher deductible or higher co-pay plan to fund a debit card for each employee with a predetermined amount of money that they can use to cover out-of-pocket health care related expenses like deductibles, office visits, and prescription co-pays.Prior to this new collaboration with Choice Care Card, Blue Cross and Blue Shield customers needed to select an HRA vendor separately and employees were required to submit documentation to substantiate their claims. The new HRA relationship with Choice Care will reduce paperwork for the individual BCBSVT member, allow improved reporting for the group, and simplify the IRS substantiation process.‘This new service allows our group customers to establish HRAs with the purchase of their Blue Cross coverage,’ explained David Krupa, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. ‘The integration of services afforded by this HRA collaboration with Choice Care Card eliminates a lot of paperwork and will make Blue Cross and Blue Shield coverage more attractive for many Vermont businesses.’The new offering is available to groups now, according to Krupa.The integration with Choice Care Card is the first in a series of planned vendor integrations to be launched in the next year. ‘Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont recognizes the value of an employer group’s ownership of their banking arrangement and respects that ownership by not requiring only one solution,’ added Cindy Horan, Manager ‘ Account Management.About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is the state’s oldest and largest health insurer, providing coverage for about 150,000 Vermonters. It employs over 350 Vermonters at its headquarters in Berlin and branch office in South Burlington, and offers group and individual health plans. More information about Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is available on the Internet at www.bcbsvt.com(link is external). Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is an independent corporation operating under a license with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans.Source:Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont. 9.29.2010 read more