Greenshield to offer the seamless digital health-care experience Canadians have been waiting for

Imagine this: You wake up sweating in the middle of the night—head pounding, heart racing. You roll over, grab your phone and open an app. A doctor appears onscreen and addresses you by name. To alleviate your pain, the app’s pharmacy delivers medication to your front door and a pharmacist appears onscreen to answer any questions you have. The doctor diagnoses the root cause as stress and offers to match you with a therapist. There’s no need to repeat your story because it’s already in the system. The therapist appears, shares coping mechanisms and refers a self-guided therapy program you can access from the app whenever you want—to build resilience. You go back to bed knowing the app is fully integrated with your benefits plan, so there’s no paperwork or out-of-pocket costs. It’s a health-care experience built around your needs.

Sound too good to be true? It’s not. It’s GreenShield+.

GreenShield, Canada’s only national not-for-profit insurer, is announcing a first-of-its kind digital health ecosystem, launching later this year. GreenShield+ will offer streamlined, connected care that’s fully integrated with its benefits plans. This will bridge the typical gaps between payers and providers, giving Canadians seamless access to the care they need, anytime, anywhere. GreenShield+ is built with technology from Microsoft and Google Cloud, optimizing the consumer journey and prioritizing the security of member information.

Why now?

One in five Canadians don’t have a family doctor—and there are significant wait times for those that do. Now more than ever, Canadians crave improved access through digital health-care services. In fact, one year into the pandemic, the percentage of Canadians accessing virtual care grew from three per cent to 75 per cent. GreenShield+ solves for this with the added convenience of benefits integration, further reducing administrative burden and streamlining complexity.

“Championing ‘better health for all’ has always been our organization’s purpose. The way we deliver on our purpose evolves with the changing needs of Canadians,” said Zahid Salman, GreenShield’s president and CEO. “Canadians want to take control of their health, but face challenges accessing and navigating the health system.”

Plan sponsors want solutions that address the unique needs of their workforce, including rising requests for mental-health support and digital tools. GreenShield’s integrated offering improves health outcomes, which promote mental health and decrease burnout; this translates into fewer sick days and mitigating chronic health issues that require more medications and services. In fact, the use of digital health services could save nearly 19 million work hours per year and add up to $400 million to Canada’s annual GDP.

As Canada’s only payer-provider, GreenShield offers insurance, administers benefits and pays claims, while also delivering health-care services like mental health, telemedicine and pharmacy.

“We’re revolutionizing the industry by linking the interconnected pieces of health and wellbeing and breaking down administrative barriers,” says Salman. “This innovative model unlocks the concept of ‘whole health’, leveraging data-driven insights to implement preventative care strategies, reduce health-care costs and achieve better health.”

GreenShield also just announced a rebrand reflective of its modern approach. The new branding ties its offerings together—emblematic of the innovative, integrated, tech-forward health company it has become. Simply put, GreenShield gives Canadians the health-care experience they’ve been waiting for.