Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia will no longer reimburse emergency department visits it deems unnecessary as of July 1. Instead, the insurer will ask patients to take advantage of other services, such as its telehealth platform.
Research has shown many patients use EDs to access urgent care, rather than real emergency services, Jason Hockenberry, PhD, a health policy professor at Atlanta-based Emory University, told WABE.
BCBS of Georgia's new policy aims to redirect patients to either urgent care clinics or its LiveHealth Online telehealth app as a means of de-cluttering EDs and reducing cost of care, WABE reports.
"We're not trying to steer people away from the emergency room if they have a serious condition," Debbie Diamond, director of publications for BCBS of Georgia, told Becker's Hospital Review last month. "If a member is having chest pain that they think is a heart attack, they should still go to the emergency department."
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