Independence Blue Cross Makes Music for Members' Ears

Independence Blue Cross Makes Music for Members' Ears

Offers Chance to Win an MP3 Player in Campaign to Fight Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Independence Blue Cross (IBC), the region's largest health insurer, is once again offering its members an incentive as part of this year's Adolescent Immunization Awareness Campaign. It is the seventh year the company has used an incentive as part of its education and outreach efforts to help ensure that its young members, particularly children ages 11-13, are fully immunized. The campaign comes at an important time when many parents are preparing their children with the necessary vaccinations to return to school.

This program is another example of IBC's comprehensive efforts to increase immunization rates. As a result, the latest 2007 national quality report ranks IBC in the top ten percent among all participating health plans nationally in the rate of adolescent members obtaining the recommended immunizations. IBC has also received national and statewide recognition for these efforts from organizations such as The Pennsylvania Immunization Coalition, EHealthcare Leadership, and World Wide Web Health.

"Kids like it. Parents learn from it. Public health officials welcome it," says Dr. Esther Nash, senior medical director, Population Health and Wellness at IBC. "The goal of the incentive-program is to make sure our members understand how vaccines prevent disease and protect those who come in contact with unvaccinated individuals. It also helps parents of adolescents learn what the new vaccine recommendations are and reinforces how boosters can continue the protection of the vaccines they received as infants and as younger children."

As part of the Adolescent Immunization Awareness Campaign, IBC offered the opportunity to win an MP3 Player to the children of 77,000 members (parents and guardians), along with a reminder about immunizations and boosters that are recommended to keep their children safe and healthy. The mailing includes information on vaccine-preventable diseases such as meningitis and pertussis (also known as whooping cough), including the latest recommended vaccine to protect girls and young women between 11 and 26 years old against the Human Papilloma Virus.

The information also reminds parents about other vaccines that protect children from serious illnesses such as measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, chicken pox, influenza and polio. In addition, IBC notified members about important health resources found through the mail, phone and web, such as:

-- National Bilingual Immunization Hotline: 1-800-232-4636 or for
TTY-1-888-232-6348
-- IBC's interactive GEN-Y website, an interactive web-based health
resource for children and their parents:

www.ibx.com/gen-y

-- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended vaccinations
list for children of all ages:

www.cdc.gov/vaccines.

To be eligible to win an MP3 player, parents or guardians must be enrolled in an Independence Blue Cross health plan. The member must complete an online entry form and provide the date that his or her child, ages 11-13, saw a physician to review his or her adolescent immunization status. The form can be found on Independence Blue Cross' GEN-Y website at www.ibx.com/gen-y.

The offer expires December 31, 2007.

About Independence Blue Cross

Independence Blue Cross is a leading health insurer in southeastern Pennsylvania. Nationwide, Independence Blue Cross and its affiliates provide coverage to nearly 3.4 million people. For nearly 70 years, Independence Blue Cross has offered high-quality health care coverage tailored to meet the changing needs of members, employers, and health care professionals.

In 2006, Independence Blue Cross was nationally recognized by the Disease Management Association of America for Connections(SM), its outstanding program that improves the health and well-being of people with chronic illnesses. Independence Blue Cross's HMO and PPO health care plans have consistently received the highest ratings from the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

Source: Independence Blue Cross

CONTACT: Karen Godlewski of Independence Blue Cross, +1-215-241-3113,
Karen.Godlewski@ibx.com

Web site:

http://www.ibx.com/gen-y
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines

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