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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina to Offer Health Risk Assessments for Employers and Individuals

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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina to Offer Health Risk Assessments for Employers and Individuals











Chapel Hill, NC (Vocus) March 13, 2007

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina today announced an extensive new program aimed at helping employers and individuals understand and act on their health risks.

Your Health Profile, BCBSNC’s confidential health risk assessment (HRA), helps employers quantify the health risks that exist in their employee population. Using an aggregate summary report that comes from the HRA, employers can design and promote programs that target the specific needs of their workers — such as managing diabetes or increasing physical activity.

“Employers tell us they want more information to help them take specific, measurable actions toward containing rising medical costs,” said Bob Greczyn, BCBSNC president and CEO. “Your Health Profile can be one of the first and most important steps to creating a healthy workforce. A healthy workforce not only affects direct health costs such as medical claims, it also cuts down on the indirect costs of absenteeism and disability.”

Your Health Profile helps individuals who fill out the HRA to better understand their own health risks. Upon completion of the confidential questionnaire, BCBSNC members receive personalized assessments of their health status, complete with tips on developing an action plan for maintaining and improving their health.

BCBSNC is offering Your Health Profile through an agreement with Summex Corp., a unit of WebMD Health Corp. that provides comprehensive health and wellness programs to employers. The HRA becomes available to BCBSNC employer groups in early June.

Cook Endoscopy in Winston-Salem offered Your Health Profile to employees in January as part of a pilot program. “The HRA is a big part of our plans to promote workplace wellness,” said Maryann Atkins, Human Resources Benefits Specialist at the maker of medical devices. “It’s giving us some insight into the health issues our workforce is facing that we couldn’t have gained through any other means.”

How It Works

Your Health Profile consists of an online or paper questionnaire designed by Summex and administered by BCBSNC. Questions involve such health behaviors as physical activity, eating habits and tobacco use, as well as self-reporting of height, weight and medical history. The questionnaire takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete.

Upon completion, individuals receive their personalized health report outlining health status and risks. The report may suggest actions to take to improve health. Individuals are encouraged to share their report with their physician.

Individuals whose reports show risks for certain health conditions — and who indicate a willingness to improve their health — will be enrolled in BCBSNC’s Member Health Partnerships. The program offers customized support and education to members with one or more health conditions such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, asthma or unhealthy weight. Also, members taking the HRA may access BCBSNC’s Online Healthy Living program for help with such lifestyle issues as weight loss and stress reduction. These tie-ins with existing BCBSNC programs enhance Your Health Profile, extending its reach beyond information and giving members the support they need to maintain and improve their health.

Employers with 50 or more employees completing the survey receive an aggregate summary report that includes suggested steps for addressing health issues within their employee population. The employer does not receive individual questionnaire results.

Who Is Eligible

Employer groups with coverage from BCBSNC, including self-funded employers who pay a fee to BCBSNC to administer their health plan, may use Your Health Profile. Workers at those employers who have chosen a BCBSNC plan will be given the opportunity to take the HRA. BCBSNC is offering Your Health Profile at no additional charge to employers and individuals when the survey is taken online.

Customers of BCBSNC’s Blue Advantage individual coverage also may take the HRA and receive a confidential health report. Blue Advantage customers should visit http://www.bcbsnc.com and click on “Member” to log into My Member Services, where Your Health Profile is available.

About BCBSNC:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is a leader in delivering innovative health care products, services and information to more than 3.4 million members, including approximately 749,000 served on behalf of other Blue Plans. For 73 years, the company has served its customers by offering health insurance at a competitive price and has served the people of North Carolina through support of community organizations, programs and events that promote good health. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Access BCBSNC online at http://www.bcbsnc.com

Contact: Kyle Marshall or Heidi Deja

BCBSNC Media Line: 919-765-3005    

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Third Brigade to Deliver Two Presentations at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s 2006 Blue Health IT Symposium

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Third Brigade to Deliver Two Presentations at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s 2006 Blue Health IT Symposium











Ottawa, Ontario; Reston, VA (PRWEB) November 13, 2006

Third Brigade, Inc. (http://www.thirdbrigade.com), a security software company that specializes in host-based intrusion defense systems, today announced that Brian O’Higgins, Chief Technology Officer, and Blake Sutherland, Vice President of Product Management and Co-Chair of the Vulnerability Assessment Working Group of the eHealth Vulnerability Reporting Program (EHVRP) will present at the 2006 Blue Health IT Symposium.

Mr. O’Higgins’ presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 1:15pm CT at the Peabody Memphis Hotel, Memphis, TN, and is entitled, “Being Proactive for Zero-Day Threats, Using Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) to Protect Critical Applications.”

This session will provide an overview of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) vs. Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), and outline some widely divergent approaches to IPS. A prominent Arizona health insurer selected a host-based IPS (HIPS) approach to shield critical applications to buy time to deploy patches on a sensible maintenance schedule, rather than an emergency mode reactive schedule. The requirements were to monitor and alert on threats as they occur, but also to automatically protect systems that contain critical data or sensitive information. A case study of the insurer’s deployment experience from testing to operations will be outlined.

Mr. Sutherland’s presentation is scheduled for Thursday, November 16 at 1:30pm CT at the Peabody Memphis Hotel, Memphis, TN, and is entitled, “eHealth Vulnerability Reporting Program (EHVRP) Update: Practical Approaches to Addressing Vulnerabilities in eHealth Systems”.

The eHealth Vulnerability Reporting Program (EHVRP) is an industry initiative that has been formed to ensure customers of eHealth systems have the necessary information to appropriately manage risk related to eHealth systems. The program hopes to do this by establishing a mechanism for eHealth system vendors and their customers to access and report system vulnerabilities in a mutually acceptable, beneficial and confidential manner. The initial focus of this program is on Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems. As part of this program, demonstration projects are being used to validate that vulnerability information used in conjunction with appropriate compensating controls are a practical way of quickly reducing risk while maintaining system usability

The focus of the presentation will be on the findings to date with respect to the level of vulnerabilities being found in EHR systems and the practical approaches being used to effectively secure these systems while maintaining usability and without introducing significant new costs of ownership.

Third Brigade will also exhibit at the conference at Booth #49.

Dates and Times:    

Wednesday, November 15    3:45pm – 7:00pm CT

Thursday, November 16    11:30am – 1:30pm CT

About Third Brigade

Third Brigade specializes in providing host intrusion defense systems to government, financial services, health care, telecommunications and other organizations that need to detect and prevent attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in commercial and custom software, including web applications. It enables you to create and enforce comprehensive security policies that proactively protect critical applications, sensitive data, and hosts, ensure regulatory compliance, and maximize the performance of your people, processes and hosts. Unlike others, Third Brigade software is not intrusive: it is smaller, faster and simpler. Third Brigade. That’s control.

For media and analyst inquiries only, contact:

Kathryn Schwab

Media and Analyst Relations

Third Brigade, Inc.

(M) 613-858-4407

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Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.







Third Brigade CTO Discusses Automated Security for E-Health at Blue Health IT Symposium

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Third Brigade CTO Discusses Automated Security for E-Health at Blue Health IT Symposium










Ottawa, ON and Reston, VA (PRWEB) November 8, 2007

Third Brigade (http://www.thirdbrigade.com), a security software company specializing in host intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS), today announced that Brian O’Higgins, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, will be speaking on “Self-Defending Health Care Hosts” at the Blue Health IT Symposium, a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association event.

Attendees to the session will learn about:

    the concept of automated host security and the future of e-Health system protection
    the challenges in detecting security vulnerabilities and real-time threats
    new technologies that are helping to evolve payor defenses against targeted attacks

Who:

Brian O’Higgins, Chief Technology Officer, Third Brigade

What:

Blue Health IT Symposium; Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

When:

Thursday, November 8, 2007 – 2:45 PM

Where:

Millennium Biltmore

506 S. Grand Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90071

About Third Brigade

Third Brigade (http://www.thirdbrigade.com) specializes in providing host intrusion defense systems to organizations that need to detect and prevent attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in mission critical systems. Third Brigade Deep Security allows businesses to apply comprehensive security profiles to hosts that protect against known and zero-day attacks using deep packet inspection. It helps ensure compliance and the 24-7 availability of critical systems, provides a virtual patch for software vulnerabilities, and allows organizations to deliver Internet-based services with greater security and confidence. Unlike other host intrusion detection and prevention systems, Third Brigade Deep Security provides broader, faster and simpler protection. Third Brigade. That’s control.

Note: “Third Brigade”, “Deep Security Solutions”, and the Third Brigade logo are trademarks of Third Brigade, Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information:

Laura Maio

Media & Analyst Relations

Third Brigade, Inc.

(T) 613-599-4505 x2238

(M) 613-219-2800

laura.maio @ thirdbrigade.com

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Vocus©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.