What Comes With the Plan at No Extra Cost

When people ask what makes Health Saver Plus III different from a bare-bones plan, the honest answer isn't just the coverage tiers or the network. It's the handful of services that ride along with the policy at no extra cost. None of these are upsells you have to add on later. They come with the plan, and most people don't fully use them until the day they actually need one.

PLUS III builds on top of the base MultiPlan / PHCS network access every Health Saver Plus III policyholder gets, adding preventive care benefits, ScriptSave, Teladoc, Karis360 and a concierge phone service on top. The list below is what that actually means in practical terms, one service at a time.

It helps to think of these as two different kinds of value. Some, like ScriptSave, show up as a direct reimbursement every time you use them. Others, like Teladoc and Karis360, show up as access: someone to call, day or night, before a small question turns into a bigger one. Both matter, and neither one requires you to remember to enroll separately.

ScriptSave: Prescription Savings Built In

ScriptSave is a prescription savings card that comes at no cost and is accepted at more than 62,000 chain and independent retail pharmacies nationwide. Under Health Saver Plus III, it reimburses $15 per daily generic prescription and $30 per brand name prescription. If your pharmacy asks for a group number, it's 2242. It's a simple thing to have in your wallet, but for anyone on a regular prescription, it adds up month after month.

For a household managing more than one ongoing prescription, that reimbursement applies every time the prescription is filled, not just once. It's the kind of benefit that's easy to overlook when you're comparing plans on paper, and easy to appreciate the first month you actually use it at the pharmacy counter. Because it's accepted at more than 62,000 pharmacies, it's rarely a question of whether your regular pharmacy takes it, it almost always does.

Teladoc: A Doctor Without an Appointment

Teladoc gives you access to U.S. board-certified physicians anytime, anywhere, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by phone, online, or through a mobile app. Teladoc's own background is worth knowing: the company set out in 2002 to find a better way to connect doctors and patients, and that's still the idea behind the service today. It's not a replacement for your own doctor, but for the Sunday night question that can't wait until Monday, it's there.

Karis360: A Team on the Phone When You Need One

Karis360 gives you unlimited access to a dedicated team of professional advisors, by phone, to help with health care-related questions and concerns. It covers three specific pieces: a Healthcare Navigator to help you understand your options, Karis Surgery Saver, and a Karis Bill Negotiator. The Karis Group describes its own mission simply: built on the vision to make health care work. In practice, that means someone to call when a medical bill or a scheduling decision feels more complicated than it should be.

• Healthcare Navigator, to help you understand your options
• Karis Surgery Saver
• Karis Bill Negotiator

The Concierge Phone Service, Preventive Care and Ambulance Cover

Health Saver Plus III also includes a concierge phone service, preventive care benefits, and daily emergency ambulance coverage, both ground and air, in every policy. These aren't add-ons priced separately or offered as an upgrade tier. They're part of what the plan is, from the day it takes effect.

The ambulance benefit in particular is worth pausing on, because it applies whether the situation calls for a ground ambulance or an air ambulance, and it's built into every policy rather than something you have to remember to opt into during enrollment.

Taken together, ScriptSave, Teladoc, Karis360 and the concierge line are the pieces people tend to forget they have until the exact moment they're grateful for them. This article is a general description of what comes included with the plan. The specific terms, limits and exclusions that apply to your own coverage are set out in your policy itself. If you want the details explained plainly before you decide anything, call me and I'll walk you through it. Mike Garvey