Health Net of California yesterday launched a cross-border health insurance plan in San Diego County targeting Latino workers in the region who want to receive medical services from doctors in both the United States and Mexico.
Salud HMO y Ma?s, which translates to “Health HMO and More,” will be marketed primarily to small businesses in the county that employ Latino workers who live just across the border or have immediate family members there.
“Salud HMO y Ma?s is a product that is designed specifically to meet the needs of the growing Latino population in Southern California,” said Ana Andrade, vice president of Latino programs for Health Net.
Under the plan, workers will be able to receive care at hospitals in Health Net’s local network and from bilingual doctors with five local medical groups. The health plan also is tapping a network of Mexican physicians in the border towns of Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito and Tecate through Sistema Medicos Nacionales SA.
An important condition is that the plan covers services in Mexico only for dependents who live south of the border.
The plan could be attractive to businesses that can’t afford to offer more traditional insurance coverage to workers or those with Latino workers who forgo U.S. insurance because they receive most of their health care in Mexico.
For the past several years, Health Net and at least three other insurers have offered cross-border plans in the region. But those products limit care in the United States to emergency services and require members and dependents to receive all other treatments in Mexico.
All of the cross-border plans cost less than other types of insurance products because they use lower-priced health services in Mexico.
Family premiums for Salud HMO y Ma?s are about 26 percent less than premiums for Health Net’s typical family plan, said Health Net spokesman Brad Kiefer.
Website: www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/nov/13/health-net-of-california-offers-cross-border-plan/