Lumenos Going Nationwide, Wellpoint Says

   Wellpoint revealed at its earnings conference this morning that it will expand the Lumenos product nationwide starting January 1, a major sign of support for HRAs and an clear sign that large national employers are demanding that insurers offer all CDH products.

   Lumenos was one of the first CDH products, and has always drawn top acclaim from us as possibly the best HRA product on the market along with Definity Health. Lumenos has a member satisfaction rate above 90%, while remaining true to its original product design, something that is becoming rarer across the HRA landscape.

   Wellpoint will “aggressively introduce” the Lumenos product in all of its accounts and all markets next year, Wellpoint chief Larry Glasscock told analysts. Early results on Lumenos show “promising medical cost savings” to employers and employees, and almost every RFP Wellpoint received this year requested a CDH product.

   Lumenos was acquired by Wellpoint two years ago, but results were initially slow to materialize as WLP focused on its merger with Anthem, both of whom had pre-existing CDH account products.

Wellpoint is now finally growing rapidly in its CDH accounts. At the end of July the company boasted 698,000 covered lives in HSAs and HRAs, an increase of 300,000 in the past 12 months. CDMR ranks Wellpoint the second-largest CDH firm behind United.

    In another move, Wellpoint this week revealed that it will launch the most aggressive industry effort yet to create a claims-based personal health record for every one of its millions of members. WLP is targeting late 2007 for the launch, and the record will be available for download so patients can take it with them to appointments.