(Blue Cross Secure Blue plans only)
From a broken bone to a serious illness, stabilizing an acute medical condition or situation is the purpose of an inpatient hospital stay.
When you are discharged, that means you no longer need services that can only be provided in a hospital setting. Often, you do not need to stay in the hospital until your condition is completely improved. Follow-up appointments with your care provider will generally be needed to stabilize, manage, and/or treat new and existing conditions.
The path to getting the post hospital care you need can feel overwhelming. Blue Cross aims to support members with the transition between care settings and to prevent a hospital readmission. Kim Winter, senior product consultant, and Amy Wald, senior product specialist, explain Blue Cross’s robust member benefits available after a hospital stay.
What counts as a hospital stay?
First, it’s important to understand what exactly is meant by “hospital stay.”
“In the context of benefits available after discharge,” says Winter, “a hospital stay is any inpatient hospital admission or skilled nursing facility (SNF) stay.”
Member benefits
Our goal at Blue Cross is to ensure positive health outcomes for all of our members. We could not reach that goal without our care coordinators.
“Anytime a member transfers from home to a hospital or care facility, and then back home, the care coordinator is required to do a ‘transition of care’ discussion,” explains Winter. She goes on to say, “During that discussion, they will tell the member about their benefits.”
If you haven’t heard from your care coordinator and don’t know how to get in contact with them, call the member services number on the back of your member ID card for assistance.
There are three main benefits universally available to members after a hospital stay — meal delivery, medication reconciliation and review, and a community companion.
Meal delivery
Blue Cross has meal delivery available at no additional cost for our members after a hospital stay. Our hope is that our members take advantage of nourishing food, delivered to their door to help build back their strength during recovery.
Meals are tailored to any individual dietary requirement, so if you have a special diet — if you have diabetes, for example — our meals will be made specifically to address your nutritional needs.
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Medication reconciliation and review
A hospital stay typically results in additional medications or altered doses. Because new medications can be confusing, we offer a medication review for all of our members post-hospital stay.
This medication review is done by a certified geriatric pharmacist.
“Basically,” Winter says, “this is a discussion with the member.” The pharmacist will go over each medication and make sure that the member knows exactly what it’s for and when to take it. The pharmacist will also look for any interactions between medications that require attention.
These medication reviews can happen either in person or via telephone; we encourage an in-person visit. Our pharmacists follow all the necessary COVID-19 precautions and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations, but the method of medication review is based solely on member preference.
If you have a need for additional medication reviews, you can use the Medication Therapy Management (MTM) service. See the “Review Your Meds” sidebar for more information.
Community companion service
The community companion service is a brand new benefit for our members. Community companions are certified Community Health Workers (CHW) who offer individualized support and resources after leaving the hospital. A community companion works with you, individually, or alongside a caregiver. Community companions work together with your care coordinator and are aware of all your plan’s supplemental benefits.
Included with this benefit are two home visits and two telephone calls during the first 30 days after discharge. During these visits, the community companion will work with you to develop goals, review medications, conduct a home safety assessment, discuss community resources, nutrition and upcoming medical appointments.
The goal: Get healthy at home
Our post-hospital stay benefits are intentionally provided to support your health needs after a discharge. These benefits are universally available to members, and we encourage you to take advantage of them. We’re here to help. If you have questions about your benefits after a hospital stay, call us using the phone number on the back of your member ID card.
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