(December 1, 2016, Newark, NJ) – Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ) announced today the opening of a second new enrollment and service location to help Spanish-speaking consumers find affordable health care coverage and assist them with all their benefits needs.

Established in a broker alliance with Horizon BCBSNJ, the HolaDoctor Insurance Services at 197 Smith Street in Perth Amboy is the second installment of the brick and mortar approach to reaching Hispanic consumers. The flagship retail center is located at 353 Central Ave in Jersey City. An estimated 5,000 consumers have been served by this facility since they opened their doors in November of 2015.

“Horizon takes very seriously its responsibility to connect the roughly one in five uninsured Hispanic residents in New Jersey with the information and resources they need to purchase coverage to improve their health,” said Christopher M. Lepre, Senior Vice President of Market Business Units. “We are putting unprecedented resources into this effort through community-based outreach, like opening service centers in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods and enhancing all of our communications to break down any language barriers that may interfere with Hispanics getting the full range of assistance they need for health coverage,” Lepre said.

Awaiting visitors to either HolaDoctor Center is one-on-one assistance with trained, bi-lingual agents who will help them with:

• Full enrollment services in Spanish, including assisting consumers with obtaining any financial assistance for which they may be eligible through the Federally-Facilitated Marketplace;
• Completing a Health Risk Assessment;
• Guiding them through a new Spanish-language section of the Member Portal where they can manage their billing needs and find culturally-specific resources to help them locate providers and maintain good health;

The other ways that Horizon BCBSNJ has helped and will continue to help connect Hispanic consumers to coverage and improve their health literacy include:

• Holding regular grass roots education events in Hispanic-owned restaurants (Brunch con Beneficios) to break down language barriers and improve health literacy;
• Educating members of the value-added benefits and rewards onsite with the Café Con Leche sessions;
• Creating a Spanish-language website (Horizonazul.com,) and a dedicated team of Spanish-speaking agents and phone hotline to service Latino consumers and businesses;
• Establishing remote service and sale locations at New Jersey malls, and staffing them with Spanish-speaking agents;
• Collaborating with the Hispanic business community to create new channels of cultural outreach;
• Proving support and guidance to navigators and in-person assisters through workshops, presentations and onsite visits.

Bilingual representatives are also available at Horizon Connect – a retail center staffed by trained agents in the East Gate Square Shopping Center in Moorestown, along with the mall kiosk locations that Horizon BCBSNJ has established for the 2017 open enrollment period:

Open Monday-Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Horizon BCBSNJ kiosks will be in the following mall locations from November 1 through January 31:

• Woodbridge Center -- 250 Woodbridge Center Drive, Woodbridge, NJ.
• Ocean County Mall – 1201 Hooper Ave., Toms River, NJ.
• Newport Centre Mall -- 30 Mall Drive West, Jersey City, NJ.
• Willowbrook Mall -- 1400 Willowbrook Mall Rd., Wayne, NJ.

Through digital, grass roots, marketing and education efforts over the last two years to engage Hispanic consumers, Horizon BCBSNJ recorded a nearly 400 percent increase among Hispanic membership. In the 2016 enrollment period, 41,000 New Jerseyans who were previously uninsured purchased an OMNIA Health Plan, with about 15 percent of those being Hispanic consumers

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About Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the state's oldest and largest health insurer is a tax-paying, not-for-profit health service corporation, providing a wide array of medical, dental, vision, and prescription insurance products and services. Horizon BCBSNJ is leading the transformation of health care in New Jersey by working with doctors and hospitals to deliver innovative, patient-centered programs that reward the quality, not quantity, of care patients receive. Learn more at HorizonBlue.com. Horizon BCBSNJ is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association serving more than 3.8 million members.

About HolaDoctor
HolaDoctor® is a leader in health services for Hispanics. Founded in 1999, HolaDoctor® manages the largest online community of Hispanics interested in health and wellness and is the exclusive health insurance partner of Univision Interactive Media. HolaDoctor also offers strategic marketing, communications and consulting services to healthcare companies looking to do business with Hispanic consumers. The company has extensive experience with health insurance, obesity and diabetes among other areas which are essential to increasing access to care and reducing disparities among Hispanics. HolaDoctor is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with offices in South Florida and Latin America. For more information, visit www.holadoctor.net