At SBIS, we carefully select leading insurance providers and products to deliver the best coverage for our customers. We proudly partner with Manulife to offer Flexcare and FollowMe, and Association health insurance, which includes the very valuable service called Health Service Navigator®.
What is Health Service Navigator (HSN)?
HSN is a unique offering included with your health insurance at no extra cost. It offers evaluation of medical records upon diagnosis of a serious illness or injury, medical coordination, second opinions and web/toll-free healthcare information – and not just for life-threatening conditions. All covered family members can quickly and easily get answers to questions and access to support services.
When you choose to use it, the MSO service offers a free independent medical consultation providing a second opinion diagnosis and treatment plan for serious medical conditions. The WorldCare team works with you and your physician to help ensure you are getting the right care – and you don’t have to leave your home or travel to get the support.
Why would you need a medical second opinion?
Health Service Navigator offers access to a second opinion service because when anyone is facing a serious illness, they want answers fast.
Studies show that in 1 of 5 cases, patients who get an MSO receive a new or missing diagnosis.
Having that opinion means that the patient can stop guessing. You will get the relief of better understanding your health situation so you can make more informed decisions on your healthcare. Remember, any MSO simply provides you with information so you can make decisions best for yourself or your family member.
Who is WorldCare?
WorldCare’s mission is to improve healthcare outcomes by connecting you and your treating physician to the foremost medical experts and expertise at the top-ranked U.S. hospitals of The WorldCare Consortium™ as well as other top academic medical centers.
They use a unique, virtual medical guidance approach, which digitally recreates the experience of walking into a leading medical institution to provide you with the highest-touch coaching and virtual medical second opinions available worldwide.
With over 25 years of experience, operations in 30 countries and over four million members worldwide, WorldCare provides the industry gold-standard in medical second opinions, delivering more than 25,000 since inception, including over 100,000 pathology and radiology reviews. And with more than 10 years of experience in the Canadian healthcare industry, WorldCare’s full suite of services and delivery systems have continued to evolve to address your ever-changing needs in a truly Canadian healthcare context.
WorldCare offers in-depth health navigation services and access to the information and resources needed to support you and your physician so you can make healthcare decisions with greater confidence.
How does it work for you?
Watch this video for an overview.
When diagnosed with a serious illness, simply call the toll-free number provided with your health insurance policy. A WorldCare Nurse Case Manager is assigned to you. He or she becomes your partner throughout the process, providing you with all the necessary release forms and scheduling an intake session. During this session, your eligibility is confirmed and any specific questions you or your treating physician may have are outlined. WorldCare then contacts your designated physician(s) to collect your medical records on your behalf.
As the records come in, an in-depth quality assurance process is completed to ensure they meet the medical guidelines. Once all necessary records are collected, one or more WorldCare Consortium™ hospitals is selected for the MSO, based on the expertise of their specialists/sub-specialists and how it best applies to your case.
The team of WorldCare Consortium™ specialists/sub-specialists then collaborates to review every aspect of your case, which may include retesting radiology and pathology. They then prepare a report detailing their MSO. The WorldCare Nurse Case Manager and Medical Director both review the report for quality and to ensure that it clearly addresses all questions.
The WorldCare Nurse Case Manager then prepares a comprehensive WorldCare Booklet. This complete report includes the MSO report, bios on the specialists involved in the review, background on the hospital(s) involved, and much more in-depth information and resources. The WorldCare Booklet is delivered within days of receipt of the complete medical records. The WorldCare MSO service eliminates the hassle of calling or visiting doctors’ offices or hospitals to collect records or waiting to be seen for a MSO.
Throughout the entire process, the WorldCare Nurse Case Manager remains in close touch with you, ensuring that each step of the MSO process meets WorldCare’s quality standards. The combined knowledge and expertise provided through the WorldCare MSO service empowers you and your treating physician with the information and resources needed to make continued healthcare decisions with confidence. No matter what is recommended, the final decisions are yours and your Manulife health insurance plan will pay for any eligible expenses you incur.
Health Service Navigator Works for Small Business, Too
Quick access to the healthcare system is a real problem in Canada. Another problem is a patient’s ability to understand what is going on and what is wrong when they have such a short time to spend with a physician while receiving lots of information.
Offering access to health insurance that includes Health Service Navigator and MSO services is a great way to help your employees (and yourself, as the business owner) get extra support at no extra cost. That support can help employees gain a better understanding of their situation. This can aid them in working through personal health challenges, and relieve them of stress and distractions that may affect their performance or personal lives.
If you have Manulife health insurance, try HSN now
Simply go to www.manulifehealth.ca to visit the HSN introduction portal. You will find all the information you need to access a WorldCare MSO when you need it for any of the following conditions:
| Heart attack | Loss of speech | Parkinson’s disease |
| Stroke | Kidney failure | Severe burns |
| Cancer | Major organ transplant | Benign brain tumour |
| Coronary artery disease requiring surgery | Major organ transplant/failure (on waiting list) | Early (stage T1a or T1b) prostate cancer |
| Aortic surgery | Paralysis | Heart valve replacement |
| Ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast | Occupational HIV injury/infection | Congenital heart conditions |
| Coronary angioplasty | Coma | Muscular dystrophy |
| Multiple sclerosis | Alzheimer’s disease | Cerebral palsy |
| Blindness | Motor neuron disease | Down syndrome |
| Deafness | Loss of limbs | Cystic fibrosis |
HSN provides one medical second opinion for each primary insured person covered by a policy plus one additional second opinion for an eligible dependant of an insured person.
Remember your health insurance is more than “just insurance”
If you’re self-employed, retired or simply not covered by a group health plan, you know how quickly medical costs can add up – especially those that may not be covered by your provincial health plan. Having your own health insurance (or supplementing your existing work benefits) can help reduce your out-of-pocket payments for common expenses like prescription drugs, dental services, vision care, physiotherapy and more.
At SBIS, we work to help you choose a health insurance plan that will meet and exceed your expectations. Talk to one of our specialists to find out more.
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