• Recap of the HealthFlex Summit, Including PowerPoint Presentations
• Which HealthFlex Emotional Well-Being Resource is Right for You?
• Annual Election Toolkit Handout Available
• Annual Election Webinars Coming Up Soon
• Participant Communications: Annual Election Roundup
• Use Internet Explorer and Virgin Pulse? It's Time For A New Browser

Recap of the HealthFlex Summit, Including PowerPoint Presentations

We are so grateful to everyone who found time in their busy schedules to attend the HealthFlex Summit. We really enjoyed hearing your feedback and we hope you found the presentations valuable. Below is a recap of the Summit presentations as well as the accompanying PowerPoints for you to review and share with your colleagues:

Day 1

• Well-Being Program Updates
  
  • Why we value Blueprint for Wellness®, Health Check, Virgin Pulse® Health Coaching and Wellness Credits
  • Talkspace overview
  • Introduction to MDLIVE®Behavioral Health Therapy & Psychiatry
  
  
• Clergy Well-Being Survey Results and Health Offerings
  
  • 2021 survey overview
  • What's next: Wespath's response to the results
  • Introduction to Mental Health First Aid
  
  
• Omada® Diabetes Prevention Program results
  
  • Participants satisfied with Omada
  • Proof that Omada helps reduce costs
  
  

Day 2

• Utilizing Benefits Access (and Alternative Options) for Annual Election
  

• Financial and COVID-19 updates
  
  • A deep dive into COVID-19 statistics for the country and the HealthFlex population
  • The importance of the COVID-19 vaccines
  • COVID-19's impact on health care spending
  • Updates and emerging trends in response to the pandemic
  
  
• Administrative Updates
  
  • Year-end/annual election timeline
  • Updates for 2022, including changes in plan rules for point-of-sale rebates, co-pay card accumulator adjustments and variable co-pay solutions
  • Improving service to plan sponsors
  
  
• Legal Updates
  
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield antitrust litigation
  • No Surprises Act changes effective January 1, 2022
  • Other legislative and regulatory developments
  
  

Which HealthFlex Emotional Well-Being Resource is Right for You?

Earlier this year we shared a handout that explains the tools available to HealthFlex participants who are seeking emotional well-being support. The flyer has been updated and now includes information about Talkspace, which provides participants access to a licensed therapist via text message or video chat. If participants are looking for more Talkspace information, we encourage you to direct them to the Talkspace page on the Wespath website.

As noted during the HealthFlex Summit, we will introduce another emotional well-being resource—MDLIVE Behavioral Health Therapy & Psychiatry—in the first quarter of 2022. We will revise the handout again at that time.

Annual Election Toolkit Handout Available

The annual election toolkit handout is now available for you to share with your members.

Just a reminder, annual election runs November 3-18.

Annual Election Webinars Coming Up Soon

Wespath will host an annual election webinar October 27 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Central time, for all HealthFlex primary participants and covered spouses. The event will explain the health plans and equip attendees with information to help them elect the best plans for their situation.

New this year, Wespath is partnering with HealthEquity® to host a webinar that will explain the benefits of plans paired with HSAs (the H1500, H2000 and H3000). The event is November 4 from noon to 12:30 p.m., Central time. HSA plans can reduce the cost of insurance each month and they allow you to build up funds for future health care expenses. HealthEquity is the company that administers the HealthFlex HSAs.

Register for the webinars here. We encourage you to share information about both webinars with your members.

Primary participants received an e-mail announcing the webinars on October 14. Many people were scheduled to receive a reminder e-mail this week. HealthEquity will also send an e-mail October 28 to promote the HSA plans webinar. Both webinars will be recorded and we will share the links to recordings following the webinars.

Participant Communications: Annual Election Roundup

In addition to the aforementioned webinars and the related communications, Wespath is sending several e-mails and letters to help participants make informed decisions during annual election. Below is a summary of those communications:

• Wespath mailed a letter to all primary participants on October 14 that explained the upcoming annual election process and introduced some features that will be new to HealthFlex in 2022.
  

  Nearly 80% of primary participants received the standard version of the letter. This version emphasized that annual election starts at BenefitsAccess.org, touched on Talkspace and noted that Wespath will improve the way manufacturer rebates are applied to brand-name prescription drugs purchased at a pharmacy.

  The six other versions of the letter stressed slightly different things. The other versions were for:

  • Conferences with a new medical default
  • Participants who don't make elections on the BenefitSolver website
  • A new HealthFlex conference
  • Participants in a new HealthFlex conference who don't make elections on the BenefitSolver website
  • Participants who don't have retirement benefits through Wespath
  • Conferences with no Dental HMO

  This year's annual election letter was mailed with a series of required legal notices. In the interest of fiscal responsibility and environmental sustainability, participants will have the opportunity during annual election this year to opt into receiving these required legal notices electronically in the future.

• Wespath partnered with HealthEquity to send participants enrolled in the B1000 a postcard and two e-mails that encourage them to consider a plan paired with an HSA (H1500, H2000, H3000) for 2022.
  

  Based on 2019 claims and 2021 plan designs, the HSA plans were most cost effective for 89.1% of participants. The B1000 was most cost effective for 0.4% of participants under the same parameters.

  The postcard is scheduled to arrive in homes before annual election begins November 3. The first e-mail is scheduled to be sent on October 21 or 22. The second e-mail is set to send November 9.

• Wespath has partnered with several conferences and employers to host webinars that are tailored specifically to their participants. E-mails promoting the webinars for the Kentucky, New England, Mountain Sky, Eastern Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and North Alabama annual conferences were sent October 20.

Use Internet Explorer and Virgin Pulse? It's Time For A New Browser

Participants who use the Internet Explorer web browser will not have access to the Virgin Pulse website beginning March 1, 2022. Virgin Pulse made this decision after Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer will be discontinued June 15, 2022.

“Virgin Pulse has proactively decided to focus our efforts and enhancements on browsers that will continue to be active and updated in the foreseeable future,” the company said in a statement.

Starting November 1, when individuals who use Internet Explorer log into Virgin Pulse, they will see a banner message about the upcoming change.

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