Blue Cross And Blue Shield Of Alabama Provides Interactive Health Web Site For Customers

September 9, 2008

BIRMINGHAM - Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama makes it easier for its customers to find health information and resources to improve their health.  Through BeHealthy.com, Blue Cross' health and wellness web site, customers can access interactive tools and information to empower them to make positive health choices.

BeHealthy.com allows users to learn about their health and find ways to improve it.  By taking the online health assessment, customers can discover the areas of their lives they may need to focus on to optimize their health.  A few of these areas include nutrition, exercise, stress and safety.  The health assessment report shows customers where they rank — low, medium or high risk — for a variety of illnesses and conditions including heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes and depression.  The web site also uses data from the health assessment to personalize the web site according to the customers' needs.

Customers can use the tools found on the BeHealthy.com web site to track measurements such as blood pressure, cholesterol level and heart rate.  Additional resources include a symptom checker and treatment cost estimator which gives customers a range of costs for a variety of conditions.  Customers can also participate in online courses to adapt healthier behaviors, and develop a personal health record to keep track of their medical history.  The content found on BeHealthy.com is developed by WebMD®, a notable name in online health information.

With BeHealthy.com, users can locate a doctor or hospital based on location, condition or type of procedure needed, as well as other criteria.  Users can view doctors' credentials, including education, languages spoken and hospitals where they can admit patients.  If searching by type of procedure, users can find out how many procedures a doctor has performed and the average length of stay for patients.

"We are excited to provide this resource for our customers and the public," says Jim Brown, Senior Vice President Customer Relations and Information Services.  "We hope it allows them to focus on making positive health choices to improve the quality of their lives – now and in the future."

About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.  WebMD is an independent company.