This year, July 5th is a work holiday for many California state residents including some of our hard working California small group health insurance clients so maybe it’s an appropriate time for us to take a ‘virtual drive’ up the California coastline and visit with our friends in California’s Santa Cruz County!
What can we say about Santa Cruz County? Where do we begin? We love Santa Cruz and its county seat and largest city Santa Cruz! We’ve visited this great part of the state many times and we’re proud to serve the California health insurance needs of its residents. In fact, you might call us Santa Cruz fanatics as we’ve been to each of the county’s largest cities, Capitola, Scotts Valley, Watsonville, the aforementioned Santa Cruz, and a lot of its other beautiful communities like Amesti, Aptos, Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley, Ben Lomond, Bonny Doon, Boulder Creek, and Brookdale many times dating back to the 1980’s! While a lot of changes might be expected over the course of that time, one thing surely hasn’t changed and that is the friendliness and warm welcoming atmosphere of Santa Cruz and its residents.
We mentioned our service to California small group health insurance clients and you’ll find an ample number of successful small businesses here in the Santa Cruz community whose economy features agriculture, a thriving tourism industry with miles of beautiful beaches and quaint shops and fantastic restaurants to serve the culinary requests of residents and visitors alike. You’ll also find small business in the area serving the needs generated by an incredible array of outdoor activities to be found in a county that features 29 miles of beaches and six state parks! Santa Cruz County is also home to a collection of high tech firms who call the county home. Now that’s economic versatility!
We’re especially aware of versatility as an attractive characteristic, because here at Vitality we consider versatility to be one of our key strengths: Vitality versatility is demonstrated by the variety of California health plans we represent to the marketplace – as an independent authorized agency operating here in the state, Vitality represents an array of leading California health insurance companies like Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, and Blue Shield of California. That means you have a wide range of plans to choose from and that also means the client has buying power and the opportunity for savings!
Our versatility extends to our product lineup: In health we offer individual and family plans, Medigap plans, and California dental insurance too, as well as serving California small group clients with group health plan strategies. While it says ‘health insurance’ on the door of Vitality Health Insurance Services, we’re about much more: We feature a range of California life insurance and supplemental insurance products such as California long term care insurance and if you should ever find yourself traveling abroad and far away from your Santa Cruz home, you can even depend on Vitality expertise for California travel insurance too!
Indeed, versatility is also the watchword here at the Vitality Blog: Here at the Blog we strive to provide important information to serve the needs of all Santa Cruz residents – regardless of insured status. If a private California health insurance plan isn’t viable for you and your family at this time, please know you can look to the Vitality Blog to help provide important contact information for Santa Cruz health care services that are available to Santa Cruz residents – from child to senior – in need of medical services. Thank you, and as always, we appreciate the opportunity to serve the many and varied needs of Santa Cruz residents and their pursuit of insurance strategies that bring peace of mind!
Let’s take a look at the prescription drug benefits that will be a vital part of the California health insurance plan you buy. Understanding how the prescription drug benefits of your California health plan work now – before you buy – is the right thing to do because insight into how prescription drug benefits work can be a real money-saver down the line:
- Let’s start with the most obvious thing a health plan shopper should know about their prescription drug benefits: On one hand we have generic-only prescription benefits. On the other, we have both generic and brand name prescription drug coverage. If you’re young, healthy and/or determined to save money on your California health plan’s monthly premium, you’ll be tempted to take the generic-only route. Be wary of this approach. While you may not be taking prescription drugs now, you may one day end up needing a brand name prescription drug for a chronic condition or long term condition (Think Lipitor for cholesterol.) or require brand name prescription drugs for a sudden and serious illness. Without brand name prescription drug benefits, the cost of taking that medicine can be prohibitively expensive.
- California health plans offer a broad range of prescription drug benefits. A broad range of plan options is good. Sometimes it can just be downright confusing. This is where we come in: Look to your Vitality California health insurance professional to provide the always free and always careful and considerate consultation you and your health benefits deserve. We’re here to serve you and you’ll get both our industry-leading website resource center and our personalized one-on-one consultation to help ensure peace of mind in the decisions you’ll be making about health care coverage for you and your family.
- We mentioned a range of plan options above. Here are some examples: Some California health insurance plans cover prescription drugs after you’ve met your annual medical deductible. Some have a prescription drug annual deductible that is separate and apart from your medical deductible.
- Different plans have different drug formularies. A formulary is a list of FDA-approved generic and/or name brand prescription drugs that are featured with your particular California health insurance plan. If you are already taking a prescription drug for a chronic/long term condition, be certain that the prescription drug you are presently taking is featured on the formulary of the plans you have under consideration. Here again, look to your Vitality professional to review formularies with you to make certain your current medication is covered.
- Within brand name prescription drugs, there are different ‘tiers’ of brand name drugs. This ‘tiering’ system is used by the health insurance companies to establish more accurate copayment rates for the level of brand name drug you buy. For example you might have a $35 copay for one tier of brand name drug and a $50 drug copay for another.
As we always do here at the Vitality Blog, we are determined to inform the reader about available options when affordability is an issue. Check out this Vitality blog post on prescription drug strategies you can use to hold down costs! A last note on the subject of prescription drugs: Here’s a ‘Did you know?’ – It is estimated that of the 4 billion prescriptions written annually, approximately 40% go unused. That is about 200 million pounds of meds that need proper disposal. When flushed down drains these drugs pollute lakes, rivers… and our drinking water; kept at home, they pose a poison risk to small children and teens. The National Community Pharmacists Association has created the ‘Dispose My Meds’ program to help dispose of unused medications the right way and you can read more about the program at the Association’s website!
