After six months of work and the consolidation of multiple databases into one, CareFirst Blue Cross and Blue Shield is rolling out its latest digital healthcare upgrade: a retooled provider directory.
The provider directory on CareFirst.com is heavily used. About 40% of all visits to the site are for provider lookup, although the plan didn’t break out monthly site traffic. Prior to the overhaul plan members had to use multiple searches and databases to find a provider, such as running different database searches for mental health and vision care providers.
But now the updated “find a doctor” directory in CareFirst’s primary market of Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia can search one database for plan-approved healthcare professionals by category such as medical, mental health, vision, dental and pharmacy, says director of digital applications Rahul Jain.
“The older provider directory had usability issues,” he says. “The updated version is much easier to use.” CareFirst, which has about 3.4 million plan members and 5,000 affiliated providers, worked with web host development and design company Arlato to make the changes.
The new provider directory also will differentiate between in- and out-of-network providers, highlight primary care physicians participating in CareFirst’s patient-centered medical home program, and include other provider quality information. To use the updated “find a doctor” directory, plan members must log into My Account or click on the Find a Doctor link from the CareFirst.com homepage.
Users will first be asked about the type of care they need before searching by location, specialty and type of health plan or network. The list of providers can next be filtered by name, gender, language, certification and affiliation. Users will also have access to a map display of facility locations to help find the provider near them or the one seeking treatment, CareFirst says.
The new provider directory was built using responsive design, Jain says. Responsive design is a format that adapts the look of a website to the device the consumer is using. It uses one code base, meaning visitors don’t have to operate several sites to account for the many types of screens consumers use to access the internet.
The project to update the online provider directory generally went smoothly, Jain says. One issue the CareFirst designers wrestled with was using terms that plan members recognized. For example the search box and terms for finding a mental health professional were first called “behavioral.” But later usability testing and consumer feedback helped CareFirst designer ultimately label the search function “mental.”
The updated provider directory is the latest in a series of upgrades CareFirst is making to its digital healthcare platform, Jain says. Although the plan didn’t provide much detail, CareFirst also recently updated its online claims processing and benefits enrollment platform.
In May CareFirst Blue Cross and Blue Shield invested $3 million to expand access to telehealth programs to its members in Washington D.C., Maryland and parts of Virginia by issuing grants to 10 public health and non-profit organizations. The grants range in size from $501,590 to Mosaic Community Services to improve telehealth access for behavioral healthcare treatment in central Maryland to $100,000 to Western Maryland Health Systems for treatment for various chronic medical conditions.
Date: August 30, 2016