Provider confusion over employer based plans with BlueChoice Options network.

This is applicable for 2016-2017 members of Blue Cross who have the Blue Choice Options (BCO) plan through an employer plan.

This is not applicable to those that have Blue Choice Preferred PPO (BCE), which is the only network offered to individual plan members.

Many Blue Cross, Full PPO, providers are not fully aware of the way that the BlueChoice Options plan works. If you do a search online with Blue Choice Options network (BCO), you will be seeing only the Tier 1 providers. If your provider is not in the smaller network, but are in the larger PPO network, you are still receiving “in-network” benefits paid at the Tier 2 level. ALL providers in the full PPO are in-network with the BlueChoice Options plan. The network called Blue Choice Enhanced is not the same as Blue Choice Options.

I have no understanding as to why Blue Cross of IL named it so similarly to Blue Choice, their small PPO network, but that isn’t my call.

For more information about the BlueChoice Options plan, available for groups only, please contact our agency @ 847-559-8100. You can see more about Options on the Blue Cross website @ http://www.bcbsil.com/employer/products/blue-choice-options/, or if you are a provider, to contact provider relations or members services to make sure you are giving your patients correct information about their benefits.