In 2022, Blue Shield of California will have some major changes as well as expansions of some of their plans into new regions. Blue Shield will be expanding its Trio HMO network into Santa Barbara & Monterey for the individual and family market in 2022.
In Santa Barbara, the Trio HMO will have Sansum Clinic medical group as well as Cottage Health as a participating hospital. In Monterey, the Trio HMO will have Aspire medical group and Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and Salinas Medical Center.
Trio HMO seeing major price decreases
The Trio HMO is seeing the most significant premium decreases in Price Region 16 (West Los Angeles) with the gold plans dropping on average 35% and the Platinum plans dropping 63%! In Orange County, Gold Trio HMO plans are dropping 30% while Platinum plans are dropping 57%. In San Francisco, Gold Trio HMO plans are dropping 30% while Platinum Trio HMO plans are dropping 57%. In addition, Monterey/Santa Cruz are seeing Gold Trio HMO plans drop an average of 21% while Platinum Trio HMO plans are dropping by 46%. The Silver 70 Trio HMO plans are dropping more modestly between 5-18% among the regions listed.
Blue Shield of California’s PPO plans will continue to offer the widest network across California with 52,000 doctors, 33,000 specialists, and 320 hospitals across the state. Blue Sheild’s PPO includes major hospital systems such as Cedars-Sinai, UCLA, and many other UC hospital systems, Sutter, Hoag, USC, Shriner’s, Scripps and more. PPO rates are increasing modestly at an average of 3% across California in 2022.
Silver 1950 PPO becomes Silver 1750 PPO
The popular Silver 1950 PPO, only available off-exchange (direct-to-carrier), is changing to the Silver 1750 PPO with a $200 lower medical deductible of $1,750 vs $1,950 and the drug deductible will be at $300 per person. Chiropractic services are covered on the Silver 1750 PPO, unlike the Bronze 60, Silver 70, Gold 80 & Platinum 90 plans, and cover up to 15 visits per year.
Teladoc, Blue Shield’s telemedicine provider, will still offer Blue Shield members free telemedicine visits, including free behavioral health e-visits. If you are a Blue Shield member, please check out https://www.teladoc.com/bsc and register for a Teladoc account to take advantage of the free telemedicine visits available to you. Telemedicine visits have continued to grow in popularity with record growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Solid Health Insurance, we strive to keep our clients up-to-date on the latest changes to the insurance marketplace. Please contact us at 310-909-6135 or email us at info@solidhealthinsurance.com to go over your 2022 health insurance renewal.