San Francisco Health Service Board retains Blue Shield SHIELD 65+ plan after narrow, contested votes

The Health Service Board for the City and County of San Francisco voted to keep Blue Shield's SHIELD 65+ Medicare Advantage prescription drug plan and the Blue Shield Access Plus coordination-of-benefits program for the 2016 plan year after extended discussion, public comment and a series of closely split votes. The board debated whether to adopt Blue Shield's newly offered national supplement-to-Medicare PPO, which Blue Shield said would provide a national provider network but would remove delegated clinical management and some ancillary benefits such as the SilverSneakers gym discount.

The board heard a detailed presentation from Paul Brown, area vice president for account management at Blue Shield, who described the national PPO as a single, national supplement-to-Medicare PPO with prescription drug coverage and broader provider access than the current SHIELD 65+ offerings. Aon…