Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield said Thursday it will open a retail store in late January or February in the North Hills to help individuals and small business owners choose health insurance plans.
Downtown-based Highmark said it will be the first health insurer in Pennsylvania to open retail locations, with its Highmark Direct store in the McKnight Seibert Shopping Center off McKnight Road in Ross, and a second store planned in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, near Harrisburg.
More consumers are choosing coverage for themselves on their own these days, or trying to decide on plans to cover a few employees.
"We understand how health insurance is confusing," said Steven Nelson, Highmark's vice president of consumerism and retail marketing.
Along with Highmark's Web site and telephone call-in service, he said, the two stores can help visitors looking at Highmark plans make informed choices.
The Ross pilot store and the other site at the Silver Springs Square Shopping Center in Mechanicsburg, won't replace the six Highmark Member Service offices across Western Pennsylvania, Nelson said. Highmark has 3.1 million members in Western Pennsylvania.
The stores will primarily handle sales. Visitors to the Ross location, for example, will be able to meet with Highmark sales associates to discuss insurance options and apply for plans.
Anyone who doesn't receive insurance through work, senior citizens who want to supplement other coverage and business owners are potential customers. Two to four people will work at each store.
Self-service kiosks where customers can research plans will be available in the 2,715-square-foot Ross store, as will a waiting area with interactive health assessment tools and a kids' activity center. Customers can meet privately with representatives or participate in video conferences.
Later, Nelson said, the stores will hold seminars on topics such as diet and wellness, along with specifics on insurance, in an area with seating for about 25 people.
The stores tentatively are set to operate from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Environmentally friendly construction techniques will be used, and the stores will be fully accessible for people with disabilities, he said.
Insurers in other markets are branching into retail locations.
"The first was Florida Blue Cross, out of Jacksonville. They opened one store, then another and now they're planning a third," Nelson said. Other insurers have tried the concept in Alabama and Kentucky, though it is still very new.
UPMC Health Plan, which competes with Highmark in the region, will continue marketing its plans through brochures, its Web site, phone representatives and face-to-face visits, said Jeff Nelson, vice president of marketing and communications and no relation to Steven Nelson.
While the stores are "a nice idea on their part," he said of Highmark, "we don't view health insurance as a mall-type of purchase." UPMC's plan has 1.3 million members across the state.
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