Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based health plan UPMC recently launched a new smartphone app that enables its members to access their personal health records, check status claims, view flexible spending account balances, find contact info for providers, and access virtual member ID cards. The app is available for download for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry 6+ users. The free app is called UPMC Health.

Those who are not UPMC members can download the app to shop for individual insurance, search UPMC's network for providers, or contact the insurance company's customer service.

At the end of last year, UPMC's senior director of consumer innovation, David Passavant, stated during an interview that mobile health apps were an important tool for unraveling the “incredibly complex and confusing” world of health insurance for consumers. At the time, Passavant predicted that by the end of 2012 most health insurance companies will offer apps that enable members to search for healthcare providers and contact their insurer. Other features that basic apps from health plans will offer include personal health records access, location-aware provider search, and virtual member ID cards. The next generation of apps offered up by health plans will include real time updates on claims status, tools to understand “costs and quality of care”, personalized health tips, and various health trackers.

The current iteration of UPMC's health app seems to cover most of those features, but health trackers do not appear to be included. Other apps previously launched by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which runs the health plan, include: ChildrensPgh, a free iPhone app developed by UPMC that offers a symptom navigator, medical advice, and more for parents; and UPMC EMS Navigator, an app to provide emergency medical services staff with an up to date set of clinical guidelines.

More in the press release below:

PRESS RELEASE -- PITTSBURGH, Aug. 24, 2012 -- UPMC Health Plan's new mobile phone application places your health information in the palm of your hand.

The new app – which is now available – allows commercial insurance members who download it to their smartphones to gain access to virtual member ID cards, a mobile Personal Health Record, and contact information for recently visited providers from a personalized list. Members will also have the ability to check the status of their claims, and to view flexible spending account balances.

"Our members will enjoy having access – right at their fingertips – to a tool that helps address their health insurance needs," said Kim A. Jacobs, Vice President Product & Consumer Innovation for UPMC Health Plan. "And members will have the added advantage of being able to take care of health matters when and where they want to – while waiting for a bus, for instance – with no need to be sitting in front of a computer."

The app is available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry 6+. Updates to the app will be released regularly and will include the features that are most requested from UPMC Health Plan members.

The app is also available to non-members who can use it to shop for individual insurance, search the UPMC Health Plan network for providers, or contact customer service. However, only members can sign on to the MyHealth online account.

About UPMC Health Plan UPMC Health Plan, the second-largest health insurer in western Pennsylvania, is owned by UPMC, one of the nation's top-ranked health systems. The integrated partner companies of the UPMC Insurance Services Division – which includes UPMC Health Plan, UPMC WorkPartners, LifeSolutions (EAP), UPMC for You (Medical Assistance), and Community Care Behavioral Health – offer a full range of group health insurance, Medicare, Special Needs, CHIP, Medical Assistance, behavioral health, employee assistance, and workers' compensation products and services to nearly 1.8 million members. Our local provider network includes UPMC as well as community providers, totaling more than 125 hospitals and more than 11,500 physicians throughout Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. For more information, visit www.upmchealthplan.com.

SOURCE UPMC Health Plan